CLA volunteer attorneys assisted residents in the Severn School surrounding area prepare testimony and file appeals regarding the demolition of homes and addition of parking lots. Residents were concerned about additional impervious surfaces and stormwater controls in the critical area. The construction plans were put on hold and Maryland Department of the Environment required a […]

CLA volunteer attorneys assisted a group of homeowners challenge the Department of Natural Resources’ (DNR’s) decision to accept aquaculture lease applications from three watermen. These leases would allow oyster aquaculture in the St. Mary’s River Oyster Sanctuary. The homeowners reached a settlement with DNR that the homeowners felt would protect the sanctuary.

A CLA volunteer attorney, along with the Columbia Law School Environmental Law Clinic, assisted two Maryland environmental organizations file a state court challenge to Maryland’s recently re-renewed General Discharge Permit for Animal Feeding Operations, including concentrated animal feeding operations. The groups challenged the permit on the basis that it lacked enforceable terms necessary to protect […]

A CLA volunteer attorney assisted the Assateague Coastal Trust (ACT) draft general comments on proposed concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) that have been given preliminary approval to discharge pollutants under Maryland’s water quality permit, also known as the General National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Permit for CAFOs. The comments submitted allowed ACT to raise concerns […]

A team of CLA volunteer attorneys assisted the Potomac and Shenandoah Riverkeepers and Gerrardstown, West Virginia, prevent a quarry operator from clear cutting a mountaintop to operate a surface mine. The litigation before a West Virginia mining board resulted in required forest replanting, stream protection, and reduction of truck traffic through Gerrardstown, as well as […]

A CLA volunteer attorney assisted the Potomac Riverkeeper Network negotiate a voluntary cleanup of a Lorton, Virginia, site used as an illegal dump for approximately 30 years. A CLA Legal Intern conducted research on Resource and Conservation Recovery Act and Clean Water Act issues related to this illegal dump.

A CLA volunteer attorney assisted the South River Federation (SRF) with legal advice, strategy, and advocacy to clean up a landfill in Crownsville, Maryland. Maryland Department of the Environment (MDE) filed a lawsuit against the owners of the dump, and SRF intervened. The parties reached an agreement, enforced by the court, to remove tires, restore […]

Since 2010, a CLA volunteer attorney has been representing Blue Water Baltimore (BWB) and neighboring residents in litigation to ensure that Sparrows Point, the former site of the Bethlehem Steel mill, is remediated adequately. The suit was for violation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) by operating without a hazardous waste management facility […]

CLA volunteer attorneys submitted two amicus briefs on behalf of Annapolis, Maryland, in support of EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) in both the United States District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. Affirming the District Court decision in July 2015, the Third Circuit found […]

A CLA volunteer attorney assisted the Midshore Riverkeeper Conservancy (MRC) prepare testimony in favor of the Sustainable Oyster Harvest Act of 2016. MRC presented the testimony in a hearing before the Maryland Senate Education, Health, and Environmental Affairs Committee on March 8, 2016. This bill directs the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science to […]