Regional Water Quality Board Approves Modified Permit to Hasten End to Mirant’s Polluting Cooling System City Officials & Community Leaders Call Decision Requiring End to Destructive Cooling Process by 2008 as “Major Step in the Right Direction”
[Originally published in the San Francisco Chronicle, Wednesday, May 10, 2006]
The Regional Water Quality Control Board is scheduled to vote today on whether to accept the recommendation of its staff and approve a permit that would allow Mirant Corp. to continue operating its Potrero power plant in San Francisco out of compliance with environmental standards until June 30, 2011. The board should reject the permit.
Success of Herrera’s Pre-Trial Motion That Plaintiffs Were Ineligible for Refunds of Criminal Penalties Through Civil Lawsuits Seals Cases’ Fate for Plaintiffs’ Lawyers
Legal Fees and Costs to City Likely to Exceed $1 Million, As Published Decision Sets Precedent to Include Unoccupied Buildings For Purposes of Fee Awards
SAN FRANCISCO (September 13, 2005) — At a dedication ceremony at Milton Meyer Recreation Center today, City Attorney Dennis Herrera praised the opening of the new Junior Giants field on Hunters Point Hill, applauding the broad public-private partnership that is helping refurbish neighborhood recreational and public safety facilities. The unveiling of the newly renovated field marks an important first among a number of community improvement projects scheduled for completion in the Bayview/Hunters Point neighborhood, of which several will be funded by $1 million secured by the City last September to settle litigation involving four federally-subsidized apartment complexes owned by AIMCO, a Denver-based real estate investment trust.
[Originally published in the Aug. 17-23, 2005 edition of the San Francisco Bay Guardian.]
IN A RECENT guest editorial for the San Francisco Chronicle, John Garamendi, a potential candidate for lieutenant governor, endorsed a plan to drain Hetch Hetchy Reservoir for the purpose of restoring the granite valley to what it was nearly a century ago. Garamendi’s endorsement aims to add heft to what had been a lightly regarded proposal and to elevate the profile of a seemingly appealing, frightfully bad idea to one worthy of consideration by California voters and policy makers.
High Court Holds that Plaintiffs May Not Relitigate in Federal Court Their Failed Claim That S.F.’s Hotel Conversion Ordinance is an Unconstitutional ‘Taking’