The general rule in Oregon is that no one can do anything in Oregon without a permit. This is particularly true when it comes to land development or anything to do with building homes and apartment buildings. This is triply true for anything which might harm trees or fish.
In the past week, questions have been raised whether WaterWatch of Oregon obtained the proper permits to destroy and remove the Pomeroy Dam on the Illinois River in Cave Junction.
This important story was first covered in the August-September Oregon Eagle (Section B, page 17) delivered to homes and businesses in the next few days. Pomeroy Dam Removal: Were Proper Permits Obtained?
Now things are heading to federal court.
Yesterday, David White of Portland, Oregon filed a class action lawsuit against WaterWatch of Oregon in the U.S. District Court in Medford.
A copy of the complaint was provided to the Eagle. The complaint asserts that WaterWatch of Oregon did not obtain Section 404 or Section 408 permits as required by the US Army Corp of Engineers under the Clean Water Act.
The complaint states the following in the introduction:
“Plaintiff presents this Pleading to the Medford Federal Court with full knowledge of Defendants’ willful violation of federal law, no permits, bullying local residence into signing a fallacious agreement and being untruthful in their Army Corps of Engineers Joint Application. Their Joint Application declared that the Illinois River was not a “Wild and Scenic River” and not navigable in Section 8 of their Joint application below.
“This is a critical habitat for spawning salmon and a wild and scenic river by the legal definition below. This, by definition, they were required to check Yes, on questions 2 and 3 in section 8 of the Joint Application. Choosing yes then would have required Section 404 or 408 permits, which were withdrawn March 12, 2024.”
The complaint cites the definitions of ‘wild and scenic rivers’ and “navigable waters” to conclude that the Pomeroy Dam removal project requires a permit under the Clean Water Act.
WaterWatch claims to be conducting the Pomeroy Dam removal under a national permit NWP-2023-591. According to the complaint, this permit covers “habitat restoration only, not dam removal.”
The complaint includes an email exchange between White and Molly Tack-Hooper who is the Supervising Senior Attorney of the Seattle office Earth Justice law firm which represents WaterWatch of Oregon.
Tack-Hooper stated in part, “With respect to your repeated demand for permits and your baseless allegations that the Pomeroy project is not properly permitted, we are under no obligation to explain the permitting for this project to you or supply you with copies of documents. You are of course free to file public records requests with the respective agencies involved.”
The complaint calls for recognition of class action status, prosecution of felony violations under federal law, restoration of the Illinois River to its “Original Wild and Scenic condition with dams and fish ladders as mandated by Congress” and “grant injunctive relief to halt all further vandalism of the Pomeroy dam.”
The complaint seeks a summary judgement “because Defendants continue to ignore what they are legally required to do by the Army Corp of Engineers, and the federal Clean Water Act, Section 404.”
Plaintiff also requests “the court to order Defendants to immediately stop deconstruction and transfer all remaining control and funds to Salmon Protection Device non-profit for remediation.” David White is associated with Salmon Protection Device.
Among other claims, the complaint “requests the federal court to provide any cost up to $1 million to Plaintiff’s mitigation team as the court sees fit.”
David White requests that Cave Junction residents affected by the destruction of the Pomeroy dam contact him for information about joining the class action lawsuit.
https://salmonprotectiondevice.com/pomeroy-dam-removal/
Richard Emmons is the publisher and editor of the Oregon Eagle.