Colorado River Litigation Update – Rollin’ on the River

This past month, the National Park Service has submitted a response to a legal challenge to the 2006 Colorado River Management Plan in Grand Canyon National Park. The case is currently before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. The groups challenging the Park's river plan include Rock the Earth, River Runners for Wilderness, Wilderness Watch and Living Rivers. The four groups filed a lawsuit against the plan just days after the Plan was finalized in March, 2006.

Two groups, the Grand Canyon River Outfitters (trade) Association and the Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association, also submitted 9th Circuit Court of Appeals responses, as interveners in the litigation in support of the Park’s current river plan.

An Amicus (“Friend of the Court”) Brief was filed August 11, 2008, also in support of the present river plan, by the Grand Canyon River Runners Association, Grand Canyon River Guides, Chicago Whitewater Association, and Elizabeth Brubaker.

Rock the Earth and its partners challenged the Grand Canyon National Park's levels and use of motorized tour boats and helicopter exchanges and the Park Service’s justification for these levels of use. The plaintiffs also challenged the Park Service's commercialization of the river. At present, 14,385 concessions passengers travel along the river with 2,270 self-guided river runners during the same summer season, a ratio of over 6 commercial guests to each do-it-yourself river runner.

In the briefs filed previously with the court, the plaintiffs note that the "NPS's allocation of river permits unfairly favors concessioners at the public's expense," arguing that the NPS used no identifiable or appropriate standards to measure demand, as required by a 9th Circuit case on Grand Canyon river permit distribution from the 1970's.

The Plaintiffs’ brief also noted that the "NPS violated the Organic Act by authorizing motorized uses that, combined with other uses of the river, impair the Grand Canyon's natural soundscape."

An earlier Amicus Brief was filed on May 23, 2008, in support of our challenge to the present plan. Signing onto this brief were the Sierra Club, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Earth, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, Grand Canyon Hikers and Backpackers Association, Californians for Western Wilderness, Friends of Yosemite Valley, Mariposans for the Environment and Responsible Government, North West Rafters Association, Olympic Park Associates, the Western Lands Project, and renowned wilderness and river recreation author (and Rock the Earth Advisory Board member) Roderick Nash.

Rock the Earth and its partners will have the final say on the matter when they submit a reply to the just-released documents in September, and then the case will be set for oral argument before the 9th Circuit in late 2008 or early 2009.

Rock the Earth and its partner groups are represented by attorneys Julia Olson of Wild Earth Advocates and Matthew Bishop of the Western Environmental Law Center.

The recently filed documents, along with all earlier court documents filed in this case, have been posted as PDF documents on the River Runners for Wilderness web site. You can read the documents at www.rrfw.org.

For background and more information, go to the RtE Colorado River Management Plan Project Page.

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