RMM would like to congratulate Senior Partner Jim Moose on his selection to the Sacramento Business Journal’s Best of the Bar 2014: An Insider’s Guide to Top Local Lawyers. Published Aug. 29, 2014, the Best of the Bar 2014 directory recognizes Sacramento-area attorneys who are especially well regarded by their peers.

Jim has enjoyed a distinguished career as one of the state’s leading environmental attorneys. His expertise on the California Environmental Quality ACT (CEQA) has made him a frequent guest speaker, author, and educator on the topic for audiences that include not only attorneys and judges, but also planners, consultants, policy experts, and students. In addition to CEQA, his practice covers the State Planning and Zoning Law, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), the Endangered Species Act, the California Endangered Species Act, and other relevant land use and environmental statutes.

Jim’s clients include public agencies and project proponents up and down the state, as well as consulting firms, nonprofits and individuals. He handles all phases of the land use entitlement process and permitting processes, including administrative approvals and litigation, and has had nearly 30 opinions published by the state Courts of Appeal and the California Supreme Court. Over the past two decades, he has participated in drafting amendments to CEQA and the CEQA Guidelines. Along with Tina Thomas and Whit Manley, he is co-author of Guide to the California Environmental Quality Act (11th ed. 2007, Solano Press Books).

A native Sacramentan, Jim earned his Bachelor of Arts Degree in English and History from the University of California, Berkeley, and his J.D from the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (Boalt Hall). Jim joined the firm as an associate in 1986, became a partner in 1990, and is now a senior partner at RMM.

To develop its Best of the Bar 2014 listing, the Sacramento Business Journal encouraged attorneys to nominate their peers. Nominees then were awarded points based on a formula with two factors that were equally weighted. One was the number of nominations received, with nominations from attorneys in firms other than the nominee’s counting for more points. The second was based on the opinion of 20 well-known lawyers who served on a peer-review panel. In all, 96 attorneys were included in the listing.

Governor Brown signed SB 743 into law in September of 2013. Among other things, SB 743 requires the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research to propose and adopt amendments to the CEQA Guidelines to provide an alternative criteria to “level of service” for evaluating transportation impacts. The alternative criteria must “promote the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, the development of multimodal transportation networks, and a diversity of land uses.” The draft guidelines provide that “[g]enerally, transportation impacts of a project can be best measured using vehicle miles traveled.” The draft guidelines state that to the extent a transportation project increases physical roadway capacity for automobiles in a congested area, the transportation analysis “should analyze whether the project will induce additional automobile travel compared to existing conditions.”

The draft guidelines can be viewed here.

OPR is requesting that comments be submitted by October 10, 2014.

RMM congratulates Jim Moose, Whit Manley, Andee Leisy and Sabrina Teller on being listed in the 2014 Northern California Super Lawyers magazine.  Laura Harris and Amanda Berlin were also included in the Rising Stars section.  The selection process is based on 12 indicators of peer recognition and professional achievement and includes the top five percent of attorneys in their practice areas.

Chip Wilkins, partner with Remy Moose Manley, LLP, took over as chair of the Sacramento County Bar Association’s Environmental Law Section on July 1, 2014. Chip served the previous four years on the section’s executive committee. RMM Associate Laura Harris, who also served on the executive committee for the past four years, will serve as vice chair.

Whit Manley will serve as faculty at an Oct. 9-10, 2014, “CEQA Overview” course offered by the Center for Judiciary Education and Research (CJER), which is a program of the Judicial Council of California’s Administrative Office of the Courts. CJER provides an extensive statewide educational program for judicial officers and court staff at both the trial and appellate levels.

Jim Moose and Whit Manley are slated to speak at the First Northern California Association of Environmental Professionals Conference Oct. 23-24, 2014, in Anderson, CA. Further details will be provided as they become available.

Tiffany Wright will speak at the Fall CEQA Basics Workshop for the North Coast Chapter of the Association of Environmental Professionals on Wednesday, Nov. 5, in Eureka.

Tiffany Wright also will speak at the Fall CEQA Basics Workshop for the San Francisco Chapter of the Association of Environmental Professionals on Friday, Nov. 7, at the Association of Bay Area Governments’ office in Oakland.

Andee Leisy will speak at the Fall CEQA Basics Workshop for the Monterey Bay Chapter of the Association of Environmental Professionals on Friday, Nov. 7, at the Santa Clara Valley Water District in San Jose.

RMM Associate Elizabeth Sarine joined the board of directors for the nonprofit California Water Law Symposium on June 2, 2014. The annual Water Law Symposium is a collaboration of six northern California law schools: University of San Francisco, UC Berkeley, UC Hastings, Golden Gate University, UC Davis, and University of the Pacific, McGeorge. Organized by law students, the events regularly draw over 300 attendees from California’s water law and policy arenas. In 2010, the Water Law Symposium won the ABA Section of Environment, Energy and Resource’s Law Student Program of the Year Award.

During her years at UC Berkeley School of Law (Boalt Hall), Elizabeth served as symposium co-chair in 2012 and as panel co-chair in 2011 for the Water Law Symposium. The 2012 Symposium at Boalt Hall focused on the need to find sustainable approaches to the management of California’s water resources in the face of increasing uncertainty and competing demands. One of the highlights was a presentation by the late Professor Joseph Sax on the Past, Present, and Future of the Public Trust Doctrine in California. A video of this presentation, and the other panels of the 2012 Symposium, can be viewed here.

After five years of study and review, California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) granted a final Hazardous Waste Permit modification for the expansion of the existing Kettleman Hills hazardous waste landfill owned by Chemical Waste Management, Inc. (CWMI). The approval on May 21, 2014, paves the way for the landfill, which is operating near capacity, to increase capacity by five million cubic yards. The landfill is located three and a half miles from Kettleman City in Kings County.

The permit includes stringent conditions aimed at further protecting public health and the environment, including increased monitoring for PCBs and other contaminants, expanded sampling and analysis of liquids captured by the landfill’s subsurface collection system, strict diesel emission standards for trucks using the facility, a containment system to control spills, required aerial and land surveys, and increased inspections. The DTSC permit review process included extensive public involvement, including a lengthy public comment period, and 23 public meetings and interview sessions with people in communities near the facility.

RMM attorneys Andrea K. Leisy and Amanda R. Berlin represented CWMI in litigation challenging the County of King’s certification of a Subsequent EIR for the landfill expansion. The Superior Court of Kings County upheld the adequacy of the EIR in 2011, as did the Fifth District Court of Appeal in 2012. More information about the DTSC decision can be found here.

On June 13, 2014, in Kings Beach, Rob Sawyer will be on a “Water Rights Roundtable,” with Dave Eggerton, General Manager, El Dorado County Water Agency, and Ron Stork, Senior Policy Advocate, Friends of the River, Sierra Nevada Alliance, Sierra Water Workgroup Summit.  The roundtable will consist of a discussion of water rights theory, how water use is regulated, and emerging issues, focusing on drought response.  More information is available on the Sierra Nevada Alliance’s website.

Jim Moose will make a presentation on 2014 CEQA case law to the Superior California Chapter of the Association of Environmental Professionals (AEP) on the evening of Sept. 10, 2014, in Sacramento. AEP is a nonprofit organization of professionals working to improve their skills as environmental and resource managers.

Whit Manley will serve as faculty at an Oct. 9-10, 2014, “CEQA Overview” course offered by the Center for Judiciary Education and Research (CJER), which is a program of the Judicial Council of California’s Administrative Office of the Courts. CJER provides an extensive statewide educational program for judicial officers and court staff at both the trial and appellate levels.

Jim Moose and Whit Manley are slated to speak at the First Northern California Association of Environmental Professionals Conference Oct. 23-24, 2014, in Anderson, CA. Further details will be provided as they become available.