ENVIRONMENTAL/NATURAL RESOURCE
Gross Law represents natural resource users, property owners, non-profit organizations, communities and individuals in litigation concerning contamination, natural resource access and regulation, and natural resource protection.
Our firm’s managing attorney Stuart G. Gross has a proven history of successfully prosecuting environmental and natural resource claims and understands the science and the law necessary to win such cases.
Recent Representative Matters
Manufactured Gas Plant (MGP) Contamination
Our firm represents homeowners whose homes were built on or near the former location of a manufactured gas plant (MGPs). MGPs were used in the late 19th and early 20th centuries to manufacture a gaseous fuel from coal that was piped into homes for cooking, heating and lighting. MGPs were located near residential end-users in locations, often within present-day residential neighborhoods. Areas near the location of a former MGP can be contaminated with a variety of potentially harmful contaminants. Gross Law assists homeowners to address the consequences of such contamination with the responsible parties.
San Francisco Bay Herring Fishery Access
Our firm represents commercial herring fishermen who have sued the Department of the Interior and National Park Service and others to halt their extra-legal prohibition of commercial herring fishing in the waters of the San Francisco Bay abutting the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The federal government lacks the legal authority to prohibit commercial fishing in these waters and its actions doing so have disrupted the careful management of the resource by California State agencies, threatening not only the health of the fishery but also that of the resource. The case is pending in the Northern District of California.
Ecuadorian Oil Extraction Litigation
Our firm represents various parties in connection with the $19 billion judgment rendered against Chevron Corporation for contamination related to oil extraction in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
Richardson Grove Highway Widening Project
Our firm represents the Center for Biological Diversity, the Environmental Protection Information Center, California Alternatives to Toxics, and concerned individuals in litigation to stop Caltrans planned project to widen Highway 101 through Richardson Grove State Park in Humboldt County. The planned project threatens the survival of ancient old-growth redwood trees in the park, while bringing no increase to driver safety. Gross Law has filed suit in California State court and federal court, seeking to prevent Caltrans from engaging in the project until it has complied with applicable California state and federal environmental laws. We successfully achieved an order from the Northern District of California federal court compelling Caltrans to redo its environmental analysis of the project.
Walnut Creek Canyon Development
Our firm represented local community members opposed to unsuitable development of an ecologically sensitive canyon abutting the neighborhood. In the face of regulatory hurdles and community opposition, the project was abandoned.
El Salvadoran Foreign Mine Development
Our firm represented El Salvadoran local communities, as amici curiae, before the Center for the Settlement of International Investment Disputes (ICSID), in a suit brought by a Canadian mining company’s U.S. subsidiary against the government of El Salvador under the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA). The mining company alleged that the El Salvadoran government violated its obligations under CAFTA when it failed to grant the company the required environmental approvals necessary for it to begin mining operations.
Non-Resident Commercial Fishing Permit & License Fees
Our firm represents commercial fishermen who are classified as non-residents of California, in a constitutional challenge of the State of California’s policy and practice of charging non-residents up to in excess of 3.75 times as much for certain types commercial fishing permits, licenses and registrations. The case is pending in the Northern District of California.
THE EMBARCADERO, PIER 9, SUITE 100, SAN FRANCISCO, CA 94111 T 415.671.4628 F 415.480.6688