Wild & Scenic Law Center

03/20/2025

The Wild & Scenic Law Center represents the Northwest Environmental Defense Center (NEDC) in a recently filed lawsuit under the Clean Water Act (CWA) against the City of Cannon Beach. In this suit, NEDC alleges that pollution discharged from outfalls at Gower Street and Tolovana State Park directly onto the public beaches violate the CWA because they contain untreated human waste. That's pretty gross!

Recent water quality data at these two outfalls, including samples collected by NEDC, DEQ, and Surfrider Foundation, show disturbingly high concentrations of f***l bacteria (e.g., E. coli) that often cause sickness in humans and pets. During the summer, children regularly play in the sand and the waters just below these outfalls. Every summer, Cannon Beach experiences beach closures ordered by the Oregon Health Authority due to harmful levels of bacteria.

The City of Cannon Beach hasn't done enough to fix this urgent public health problem. While the City has long blamed elk, dogs, and other non-human sources for this bacteria pollution, lab analysis by both DEQ and NEDC using advanced qPCR techniques identified significant concentrations of human DNA in the effluent - suggesting that the pollution is most likely coming from leaking sewer pipes, and is certainly not "composed entirely of stormwater" that might be exempt under the CWA.

NEDC has repeatedly conveyed to the City that it would prefer to reach a solution-oriented settlement that avoids prolonged and costly litigation. But now it seems the City would rather avoid the necessary treatment and other infrastructure upgrades that would permanently solve this longstanding pollution problem. Unfortunately, the City's approach does not bode well for what could be a busy and prosperous tourist season in Cannon Beach

We are proud to fight alongside NEDC to protect public health and water quality along the coast and elsewhere around Oregon.

02/09/2024

It’s a , Grand Canyon edition!

Photo 1 is me arguing in the Ninth Circuit this week to protect Grand Canyon from the Bureau of Reclamation, whose mismanagement of Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River is wreaking havoc downstream.

Photo 2 is me rafting the Grand 20 years ago - winter of 2004 - still a year away from law school.

I’m lucky to be able to fight for the rivers I love, but I need your help! Make a tax-deductible donation today at www.wildandsceniclaw.org.

Thanks!
Jamie Saul,
Executive Director

02/07/2024

On Tuesday, February 6, Wild & Scenic Law Center founder and Executive Director Jamie Saul presented argument to a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in Phoenix, Arizona in our case challenging the Bureau of Reclamation’s management plan and Environmental Impact Statement for Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River.

On behalf of our clients , Living Rivers / Colorado Riverkeeper, and and with our co-counsel , we argue that the Bureau failed to adequately consider the effects of climate change and the ongoing megadrought wreaking havoc in the Colorado River Basin.

The latest climate science predicts that the drought crippling the Basin will only worsen in the years ahead, and that hydropower generation will likely become an impossibility in the near future as Lake Powell’s water elevation continues to drop. It is long past time for the Bureau to consider these impacts and to prepare for a future without hydropower, and revised management plan for Glen Canyon Dam will better protect Grand Canyon’s precious resources and a aquatic species in the decades ahead.

A decision is expected from the Ninth Circuit sometime in late spring or summer of 2024.

02/07/2024

Today, on behalf of our clients Save The Colorado, Living Rivers, and the Center for Biological Diversity, attorney Jamie Saul (Founder and Executive Director of the Wild & Scenic Law Center) presented argument to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in our case challenging the Bureau of Reclamation's 2016 management plan and EIS for Glen Canyon Dam on the Colorado River.

We argue that the 2016 EIS failed to adequately consider the impact of a changing climate on the Dam's operations, and that new data about the ongoing megadrought, changes in the river's seasonal flow patterns, and the likely loss of hydropower generation capacity at the Dam compel the production of a supplemental EIS.

The U.S. Department of the Interior updated operations of the Glen Canyon Dam on Lake Powell in 2016, but conservationists say its management plan doesn’t consider the worsening effects of climate change and drought.

12/23/2023

I am beyond thrilled to announce the launch of the Wild & Scenic Law Center, the nation’s first nonprofit, public interest law firm dedicated to supporting the river conservation movement. Please share widely, and visit our website at www.wildandsceniclaw.org to learn more. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization; all donations are tax deductible! Thanks for your support, Jamie Saul, Founder and Executive Director.