Plaintiff Northwest Environmental Advocates and Defendant U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (€œEPA€) hereby move the Court to enter the attached [Proposed] Order Granting Stay Pending Voluntary Reconsideration
It is strange to settle a case and then continue to litigate it. But such is the strange path of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) in this case. As stated in EPA’s motion for an indefinite stay (ECF 71), the parties have reached a settlement in principle and are only awaiting final approval by senior counsel at the Department of Justice (“DOJ”).
A core component of NWEA’s mission is to ensure that Washington’s water quality standards—which must, by law, protect these salmonid species and the species that depend upon them, such as the Southern Resident killer whales—are both legally and scientifically supported. Often this has required litigation. And often that litigation has proved successful, which I view as a failing comment on Washington’s progress toward protecting these species as the law requires.