News & Updates

Six RMM Attorneys Selected for Inclusion in 2014 Northern California Super Lawyers® magazine

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.

RMM Attorneys’ 2014 Teaching and Speaking Events

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 Joins California Water Law Symposium Board

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.

Department of Toxic Substances Control Grants Final Hazardous Waste Permit Modification for Expansion of Kettleman Hills Landfill

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.

RMM Attorneys’ 2014 Teaching and Speaking Events

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.

Five RMM Attorneys Selected for Inclusion in 2013 Northern California Super Lawyers® magazine

RMM congratulates Jim Moose, Whit Manley, and Sabrina Teller on being listed in the 2013 Northern California Super Lawyers magazine.  Amanda Berlin and Laura Harris 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.

Claims Dismissed in Tahoe Regional Plan Update Challenge

On June 17, 2013, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California dismissed one federal claim and all state claims in Sierra Club and Friends of the West Shore v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and ordered Plaintiffs to pay for the production of the administrative record. The case involves a challenge to the Regional Plan Update approved by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (“TRPA”) on December 12, 2012.  TRPA had moved to dismiss the complaint for failure to prosecute, moved to dismiss all state law claims, and moved to dismiss two of the federal causes of action included in the Complaint.  TRPA moved to dismiss for failure to prosecute because Plaintiffs refused to pay for the costs associated with the production of the administrative record as required under the TRPA Rules of Procedure.  The court rejected Plaintiffs’ challenges to the validity of the administrative record provisions in the TRPA Rules of Procedure.  Rather than dismissing the entire case, the court held that the Plaintiffs were required to pay the costs to produce the record within 15 days of the court’s ruling.  The court also held that the Plaintiffs could not bring state law claims against TRPA or seek attorney’s fees under California law because the Congressional consent transformed the Tahoe Regional Planning Compact (“Compact”) into federal law. Finally, the court held that the Plaintiffs did not have standing to bring one of their federal claims, which challenged the provision of the Regional Plan Update that allowed the TRPA to delegate permitting of certain projects to local governments through Area Plans. The court held Plaintiffs lacked standing to pursue this claim because no delegation had occurred and thus there was no injury to the Plaintiffs. Although the remainder of the federal claims will proceed, the court’s ruling represents a substantial step forward for TRPA and the Regional Plan Update. Remy Moose Manley, LLP partners Whitman F. Manley and Howard F. Wilkins represent the TRPA along with TRPA attorneys John L. Marshall and Scott Lichtig. See TRPA’s press release for more information.

Third District upholds dismissal of CEQA challenge as untimely

In a decision ordered published on April 2, 2013, the Third District Court of Appeal upheld a dismissal by the Placer County Superior Court of an untimely filed challenge brought by petitioner Alliance for the Protection of the Auburn Community Environment against Placer County’s approval of a 155,000 square-foot commercial project near Auburn. The petitioner filed its CEQA petition three days after the 30-day deadline, due to a claimed miscommunication with an attorney filing service and too-late attempt to file on the last day the petition was due. The real party in interest filed a demurrer challenging the petition as untimely, which the trial court sustained, denying the petitioner’s motion for relief under Code of Civil Procedure section 473, for relief based on attorney “mistake, inadvertence, surprise, or excusable neglect.” The Third District determined that CCP §473 was inapplicable to CEQA’s strict statutes of limitation, finding that Pub. Resources Code § 211167 “makes no provision for extending the limitations period on a showing of good cause.” RMM partners Jim Moose and Chip Wilkins represented Real Party in Interest Bohemia Properties in the litigation. (Alliance for the Protection of the Auburn Community Environment v. County of Placer (2013) 215 Cal.App.4th 25.)