Wild Fish Conservancy Vs. United States Environmental...

WILD FISH CONSERVANCY, Plaintiff, v. UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY C08-0156-JCC April 28, 2010 Facts of the Case: Wild Fish Conservancy v. United States Environmental Protection Agency is it a citizen suit brought against the Agency in which the Plaintiff believes, regulations passed by the EPA and the National Marine Fisheries Service that make salmon farms in Puget Sound not liable to general sediment-management standards breaches on the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act. Because the Plaintiff argues that both the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act were violated, there are a couple of Act provisions relevant to the case. Under the Clean Water Act, the EPA is required to review state water quality standards. In regards to the violation of the Clean Water Act, The plaintiff points out that the standards imposed by the 1995 amendments to the regulations on marine sediment proposed by WA Department of Ecology and passed by the EPA (1991) adversely affected wild salmon populations (which as a result violates the Endangered Species Act.) The Plaintiff argues that both the E PA and the Fisheries Service failed to take into account â€Å"the best scientific and commercial data† in their informal interagency consultation of the regulations--specifically mentioning the EPA and Fisheries Service’s decision to ignore facts that verify the negative effects that sea lice have on wild salmon. The EPA and Fisheries Service claim that they did in fact