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A haze of smog covers the Port of Houston. (James Dillard)
case February 28, 2024

The EPA’s Good Neighbor Plan: Defending Public Health in the Supreme Court

The future of the Good Neighbor Plan hangs in the balance, with implications for public health and economic prosperity nationwide.

View of the Tulsequah River, looking east towards the confluence with Taku River.
(Photo courtesy of Chris Miller / Trout Unlimited)
case January 10, 2024

Defending Watersheds in Southeast Alaska and British Columbia from Impacts of Mining

The Taku, Stikine, and Unuk rivers flow across the Canada-United States border, from headwaters in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia through Southeast Alaska to the sea. These watersheds are some of the largest and most productive salmon habitats remaining in the world. Alaska Native and First Nations peoples have harvested salmon and caribou from…

Orcas in Puget Sound. (Tifotter / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
case January 8, 2024

Protecting Salmon and Orcas from Puget Sound Wastewater Pollution

Working with four nonprofit environmental organizations — Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, RE Sources, Toxic-Free Future, and Waste Action Project — Earthjustice is advocating for more stringent pollution controls for the wastewater treatment plant to help protect salmon, orcas, and people.

Endangered beluga whale, photographed during a hexacopter photogrammetry study of the Cook Inlet population. (Paul Wade / NOAA Fisheries)
case August 11, 2023

Alaska LNG Project

Proposed by the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC), an Alaska state-owned corporation, the $38.7 billion fossil-fuel infrastructure project to export liquified methane gas involves constructing an 807-mile pipeline that would bisect the state from north to south, spanning a distance roughly the width of Texas. Construction would affect 35,474 acres of land, 45% of which…

case May 11, 2023

South Tacoma Warehouse Project

Despite vocal opposition from concerned neighbors and environmental and health advocates, the City of Tacoma approved a land use permit for a mega-warehouse project in April 2023, without requiring an Environmental Impact Statement to examine the project’s environmental, health, and community impacts. The South Tacoma location of the mega-warehouse poses serious environmental justice concerns. The…

Jaida Grey Eagle for Earthjustice
case January 19, 2023

Line 5 Pipeline: Wisconsin Reroute

Line 5 is a 645-mile pipeline operated by Enbridge Energy that transports crude oil and natural gas liquids from Superior, Wisconsin to Sarnia, Ontario. The 69-year-old pipeline has ruptured at least 30 times in the past 50 years, releasing more than 1 million gallons of oil. The Great Lakes are the lifeblood of Tribal Nations across…

The Ajax asphalt plant is seen mid-construction on May 10, 2022 in Flint, Mich. (Sylvia Jarrus for Earthjustice)
case January 19, 2023

Defending Flint, Michigan from a Toxic Asphalt Plant

In the fall of 2021, Michigan’s environmental agency (EGLE) authorized the Ajax corporation to build a toxic hot-mix asphalt plant near Flint. Close to 3,000 people live within a one-mile radius of the plant site, in a low-income area already overburdened with industrial polluters. The asphalt plant will release harmful chemicals like sulfur dioxide and…

case June 30, 2022

Waters of the United States

In 2021, the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona said Trump’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule must be vacated because the rule contains serious errors and has the potential to cause significant harm to the nation’s waters if left in place while the Biden administration works on revisions to the rule. The court ruling…

Youth plaintiffs and supporters hold up signs after the Navahine vs the Hawai'i Department of Transportation court hearing in Honolulu, Hawaii on January 26th 2023. (Elyse Butler for Earthjustice)
case June 1, 2022

Navahine v. Hawaii Department of Transportation

14 young people filed a constitutional climate lawsuit against the HawaiÊ»i Department of Transportation (HDOT); HDOT Director Jade Butay; Governor David Ige; and the State of HawaiÊ»i. In Navahine F. v. HawaiÊ»i Department of Transportation, the youth plaintiffs claim that their state DOT’s active operation of a transportation system that results in high levels of greenhouse…

A wolf in Necedah National Wildlife Refuge.
(U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service)
case September 21, 2021

Wisconsin Tribes Challenge Wolf Hunt

Represented by Earthjustice, six Tribes filed a lawsuit in the Western District of Wisconsin against the state for its planned November 2021 wolf hunt, claiming the proposed hunt violates the Tribes’ treaty rights. Wisconsin’s Natural Resource Board approved a quota of 300 wolves for the upcoming November hunt, more than double the quota of 130…

Danny Lane, right, gives his friend Walter Byrd a push, as Byrd prepares to head down a flooded Centreville street in June 2015. Firefighters evacuated residents earlier in the day.
(Robert Cohen / Post Dispatch / Polaris)
case July 22, 2021

Ending Sewage and Stormwater Flooding in Centreville

The community group Centreville Citizens for Change (represented by Earthjustice) and more than two dozen residents (represented by Equity Legal Services and the Metropolitan St. Louis Equal Housing and Opportunity Council) sued Commonfields of Cahokia Public Water District and the City of Cahokia Heights in federal court, in response to years of raw sewage pollution…

Kuskokwim River, in southwest Alaska. The Donlin mine's massive industrial operation will destroy thousands of acres of wetlands and streams and cause permanently elevated levels of dangerous metals in local water.
(Peter Griffith / NASA)
case July 1, 2021

Challenging the Donlin Gold Mine

A consortium of Tribal governments from the Kuskokwim region, represented by Earthjustice, are fighting Donlin Gold, a mining project owned by Canadian-based mining giants NovaGold and Barrick Gold. If it is constructed, the proposed Donlin Gold mine will be one of the world’s largest open-pit mines. Located 10 miles north of the village of Crooked…

Solar panels power a dozen homes in Las Piedras, Puerto Rico.
(Dennis M. Rivera Pichardo / AP)
case June 23, 2021

Advancing Clean Energy in Puerto Rico

Community and environmental groups in Puerto Rico have developed a compelling vision of what a clean, affordable, and resilient grid looks like in Puerto Rico — a plan that combines solar, wind, and wave energy, alongside energy efficiency efforts, demand response programs, and battery storage systems. With that mix, Puerto Rico could not only fulfill…

A woman who identified herself as Jennifer sits with her son Jaydan at the Catholic Charities Humanitarian Respite Center after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in McAllen, Texas.
(Spencer Platt / Getty Images)
case June 23, 2021

Hazards at Migrant Detention Facilities

In a series of legal actions, Earthjustice has sought information — including environmental reviews of sites and analysis of the health and safety impacts on those in detention — on multiple migrant detention facilities to ensure the health of those in custody. Freedom of Information Act requests have revealed details of multiple proposed migrant detention…

Flare up at fracking well.
(wcn247 / CC BY-NC 2.0)
case June 16, 2021

Defending the Ohio River Valley from the Risks of Solution Mining Wells

A coalition of clean water advocates represented by Earthjustice — Buckeye Environmental Network, Concerned Ohio River Residents, Freshwater Accountability Project, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition and the Sierra Club — successfully sued the Ohio Department of Natural Resources for issuing permits to build three solution mining wells without public notice or comment or preparing a draft…

Fall colors on the Tonawanda Seneca Nation’s land.
(Jon Rieley-Goddard / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
case June 16, 2021

Stopping a Proposed Manufacturing Megasite Near the Tonawanda Seneca Nation’s Land

Represented by Earthjustice, the Tonawanda Seneca Nation petitioned the New York State Supreme Court to stop the development of a manufacturing megasite adjacent to the Nation’s land in Genesee County. The Big Woods are an important area for hunting, fishing, and gathering traditional medicine used by the Haudenosaunee (Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy), of which the…

A North Atlantic right whale swims with dolphins.
(Allison Henry / NOAA)
case May 18, 2021

Seismic Airgun Blasting in the Atlantic Ocean

Together with dozens of organizations and thousands of coastal communities and businesses, Earthjustice has been fighting for years to stop fossil fuel companies from blasting seismic air guns in the Atlantic Ocean, including in crucial underwater habitat for one of the world’s most endangered large whale species. These air guns produce a noise louder than…

Lead-based paint disintegrates over time and contaminates dust throughout homes or schools; lead in soil around these buildings also leads to children’s exposure. (M.R. / CC BY-ND 2.0)
case May 17, 2021

Protecting Children from Lead Hazards in Homes and Schools

Community advocacy and environmental organizations, represented by Earthjustice, successfully sued the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2019 for failing to establish protective lead hazard standards for older housing and child-occupied facilities like schools and daycares. The EPA’s definition, which was set in 1992, was more than 55 times less protective than the definition used by…