Federal appeals court reverses conviction for discharging pollution near the bay
Bay City News Service
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Bay City News Foundation
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit on Thursday reversed the conviction of James Philip Lucero for engineering a scheme to dispose of dirt and debris on lands adjoining the Mowry Slough in Newark, near the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
Lucero was a self-described dirt-broker who provided contractors and trucking companies with open space to dump fill material, or dirt, taken from construction sites for a fee, according to the court.
He was indicted in 2016 for knowingly discharging a pollutant into navigable waters in violation of the federal Clean Water Act.
MENLO PARK
In the shadow of Facebook’s headquarters, dozens of unsheltered people made their home on a 60-acre plot of grass and marshland they shared with clapper rails, foxes, coyotes and other Silicon Valley wildlife.
The encampment has existed for years, but started swelling in numbers last summer. It included people suddenly unemployed during the pandemic, and others, such as Andy, who said he’d lived there on-and-off for years.
“It’s easier in the summer,” he said, when the biting cold of the San Francisco Bay doesn’t make it so hard to sleep at night, and the rains don’t drench his belongings.
For Immediate Release, February 8, 2021
Contact:
Lisa Belenky, Center for Biological Diversity, (415) 385-5694, lbelenky@biologicaldiversity.org
Jana Sokale, Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge, (510) 229-7550, janaslc@aol.com
Appeal Challenges Housing Development on Restorable San Francisco Bay Wetlands
469-unit Luxury Development Threatens Wildlife, Sits in FEMA Flood Zone
NEWARK
, Calif. The Citizens Committee to Complete the Refuge and the Center for Biological Diversity filed a legal appeal today challenging the approval of the “Sanctuary West” housing development that would fill restorable San Francisco Bay wetlands and construct 469 luxury housing units in a Federal Emergency Management Agency flood zone.
The groups said the city of Newark failed to study the environmental harm of filling restorable Bay wetlands adjacent to a national wildlife refuge. The threat of rapidly increasing sea-level rise creates an urgent need for protect