San Francisco Baykeeper v. EPA

Seven weeks after the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) withdrew its appeal of a district court’s order that vacated a negative jurisdictional determination under the Clean Water Act for the Redwood City Salt Ponds along San Francisco Bay, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals granted a motion for voluntary dismissal filed by the limited liability company that requested the jurisdictional determination. San Francisco Baykeeper and other plaintiffs’ complaint alleged that the negative jurisdictional determination would exacerbate the consequences of sea level rise and impair California’s ability to mitigate sea level rise impacts, though the district court’s decision did not address this issue, focusing instead on EPA’s determination that the salt ponds had been transformed into “fast land” prior to enactment of the Clean Water Act.