[Awclist] [Fwd: RRFW Riverwire - RRFW REJECTS LAWSUIT INTERVENTION ATTEMPTS]

[Thomas Robey]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	RRFW Riverwire - RRFW REJECTS LAWSUIT INTERVENTION ATTEMPTS
Date: 	Wed, 9 Aug 2006 13:41:41 -0600
From: 	Riverwire <riverwire at rrfw.org>
Reply-To: 	<Riverwire at rrfw.org>
Organization: 	River Runners for Wilderness
To: 	<Riverwire at rrfw.org>



RRFW Riverwire - RRFW REJECTS LAWSUIT INTERVENTION ATTEMPTS

August 9, 2006

 

On July 25, 2006, the Grand Canyon Private Boaters Association (GCPBA) 
joined its partner, the Grand Canyon River Outfitters Association 
(GCROA), a trade association, in attempting to intervene in the River 
Runners for Wilderness (RRFW) lawsuit to address problems with the 
Colorado River Management Plan. River Runners for Wilderness, with its 
partners, Rock the Earth, Living Rivers and Wilderness Watch, sued the 
National Park Service days after the final plan was released in March 2006.

 

Attorneys for River Runners for Wilderness and its co-plaintiffs opposed 
GCPBA's arguments to join the lawsuit in defense of the National Park 
Service in a brief filed Monday, August 8, 2006.

 

In the opposition, the plaintiffs contend that the NPS alone is the 
responsible party during the merits phase of the case. River Runners 
Co-Director Tom Martin explains it this way: "The NPS alone sets policy 
and guidelines that follow laws for managing the Colorado River in Grand 
Canyon National Park. The NPS is solely accountable for a river plan 
that is supposed to follow the laws and policies of our government, and 
it alone must answer for violation of those laws."

 

More crucially, the plaintiffs' lawyers submit that GCPBA did, upon 
signing an agreement with the concessions trade association in early 
2005, abandon the very causes that it sought to advance in its first 
lawsuit in 2000. The 2005 agreement forces the GCPBA into the awkward 
and legally untenable position of appearing in court on the opposite 
side of the same resource protection and allocation questions the GCPBA 
stood for in 2000.

 

In replying to the GCPBA motion for intervention, the plaintiffs' 
opposition brief notes /"The GCPBA has flip-flopped on the issues and is 
seeking to intervene to defend the NPS's CRMP -- seeking to defend a 
CRMP that authorizes certain types and levels of use that the GCPBA 
specifically challenged in its original lawsuit..../ /In this case, 
Plaintiffs allege that the NPS's concessionaire friendly permit 
allocation system is "arbitrary and capricious, an abuse of discretion, 
and not in accordance with the Organic Act." Complaint at ¶166. If 
successful this claim will actually benefit noncommercial users such as 
the members of the GCPBA."/ The short legal response to GCPBA's motion 
to intervene can be read at River Runners for Wilderness' home page  at 
www.rrfw.org <http://www.rrfw.org/> under "Headlines."

 

Additionally, the plaintiff's lawyers point out that since GCPBA signed 
an agreement to advance GCROA's political agenda against wilderness and 
equitable access and in support of concessionaire operations, it must 
file one brief together with GCROA.

 

The court has already agreed to consider the case in two parts. The 
first part is based on the merits of the case, while the second will be 
a remedy phase deciding how to move forward to address issues raised in 
the case. The plaintiffs' legal team has asked the judge to limit the 
participation of both GCPBA and GCROA to the remedy phase of the case. 
Martin notes that the Judge has broad discretion to allow or deny 
intervention, regardless of the points raised.

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