Western Watersheds Project et al v. Bureau of Land Management of the U.S. Department of the Interior et al, No. 3:2021cv00103 - Document 26 (D. Nev. 2021)
Court Description: ORDER granting ECF No. 24 Motion to Extend Time : Response to ECF No. 23 Motion for Preliminary Injunction due by 6/24/2021. Reply due by 7/1/2021. (See pdf order for additional specifics.) Signed by Chief Judge Miranda M. Du on 6/8/2021. (Copies have been distributed pursuant to the NEF - DRM)
Download PDF
<![CDATA[
Western Watersheds Project et al v. Bureau of Land Management of the U.S....nt of the Interior et al 1 2 3 4 JEAN E. WILLIAMS Acting Assistant Attorney General United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Div. 8 Arwyn Carroll Trial Attorney, Natural Resources Section Massachusetts Bar No. 675926 P.O. Box 7611 Washington, D.C. 20044-7611 Phone: 202-305-0465 arwyn.carroll@usdoj.gov 9 Attorneys for Federal Defendants 5 6 7 Doc. 26 10 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 11 DISTRICT OF NEVADA 12 13 14 WESTERN WATERSHEDS PROJECT; et al. ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) ) Plaintiffs, v. 15 16 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR; et al. 17 Defendants, 18 and 19 LITHIUM NEVADA CORPORATION, 20 Intervenor-Defendant. Case No.: 3:21-cv-0103-MMD-CLB JOINT MOTION AND STIPULATION RE: BRIEFING SCHEDULE FOR PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION AND ORDER THEREON (FIRST REQUEST) 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 1 Dockets.Justia.com 1 2 3 4 5 Plaintiffs, the Federal Defendants, and Defendant-Intervenor Lithium Nevada Corp. (Lithium Nevada), jointly move to extend existing deadlines and propose the following schedule to govern briefing and this Court’s consideration of Plaintiffs’ Motion for a Preliminary Injunction (ECF #22). 6 WHEREAS, Plaintiffs filed their Complaint in this matter on February 26, 2021, 7 challenging “the Record of Decision (ROD) approving [Lithium Nevada’s] two Plans of 8 Operation (PoOs): (1) for the [Thacker Pass Lithium Mine]… and (2) for the “North/South 9 Exploration Project”” as well as “the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) BLM 10 prepared for the mine and exploration projects.” Compl. ¶ 4 (ECF #1). 11 WHEREAS, Plaintiffs requested relief including that the Court “set aside and Vacate the 12 ROD, FEIS, and Project approvals” and “[e]njoin Defendants, their agents, servants, employees, 13 and all others acting in concert with them, or subject to their authority or control, from 14 proceeding with any aspect of the Thacker Pass Project.” Compl. Request for Relief at pp. 69. 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 WHEREAS, on April 16, 2021, Lithium Nevada submitted its unopposed Motion to Intervene (ECF #15), which this Court granted on May 12, 2021 (ECF #18). WHEREAS, on May 7, 2021, the Federal Defendants filed their Answer to Plaintiffs’ Complaint (ECF #17). WHEREAS, shortly after the filing of Plaintiffs’ Complaint, Plaintiffs informed counsel for Federal Defendants and Lithium Nevada that Plaintiffs intended on filing a Motion for Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) or Preliminary Injunction to enjoin any ground disturbance and operations associated with any aspect of the Thacker Pass Project (including both the mining 23 24 25 26 27 and exploration projects) including those reviewed by the FEIS and authorized by the challenged Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Record of Decision (ROD) which approved the Thacker Pass Lithium Project’s plans of operations on federal lands (for both mining and exploration operations). 28 2 1 2 3 4 WHEREAS, on March 25, 2021 attorneys for all parties held a video conference call to discuss Plaintiffs’ intention to move for preliminary relief and ways to avoid the need for such motion practice. 5 WHEREAS, Lithium Nevada, during that call, informed Plaintiffs and Federal 6 Defendants that Lithium Nevada did not anticipate conducting any major ground disturbance 7 associated with the Thacker Pass Project (both mining and exploration) for approximately six to 8 seven months and the parties discussed potentially identifying a list of other pre-construction 9 activities that might not be objectionable to the Plaintiffs. 10 WHEREAS, on April 12, 2021, Lithium Nevada advised Plaintiffs and Federal 11 Defendants that it anticipated conducting biological surveys and cultural resource mitigation 12 work, and the parties discussed via email Plaintiffs’ position that they would object to any 13 ground disturbance. 14 WHEREAS, on May 13, 2021, Lithium Nevada represented to Plaintiffs that Lithium 15 Nevada intended to begin ground disturbance on June 23, 2021, consisting of initial excavations 16 and digging associated with the unreleased “Historical Properties Treatment Plan.” 17 18 19 20 21 22 WHEREAS, on May 26, 2021 Lithium Nevada informed Plaintiffs of the parameters of this intended ground disturbance. WHEREAS, Federal Defendants have informed the parties that the ROD and FEIS challenged in this action do not authorize activities by BLM. WHEREAS, on May 27, 2021, Plaintiffs filed a Motion for Preliminary Injunction, ECF #23, to prevent any ground disturbance associated with the Project from occurring until this 23 24 25 26 27 28 Court has ruled on the merits. WHEREAS, on May 27, 2021, Plaintiffs also filed a Motion to File Excess Pages, ECF #22, to extend the 24-page limit for motions by 15 pages for their Motion for Preliminary Injunction and represented therein that they would not oppose a reasonable and commensurate page limit expansion for opposing parties. 3 1 2 3 4 WHEREAS, Federal Defendants’ and Lithium Nevada’s oppositions to both motions are due on June 10, 2021. WHEREAS, Federal Defendants and Lithium Nevada have requested a fourteen-day 5 extension until June 24, 2021 to file their respective response briefs to Plaintiffs’ Motion for 6 Preliminary Injunction. 7 WHEREAS, Plaintiffs do not oppose Federal Defendants’ and Lithium Nevada’s request 8 for a two-week extension to file their respective response briefs to Plaintiffs’ Motion for 9 Preliminary Injunction so long as Federal Defendants and Lithium Nevada will formally stipulate 10 that no Project area ground disturbance activities challenged in Plaintiffs’ Complaint will occur 11 before July 29, 2021. 12 THEREFORE, the Parties agree and stipulate: 13 1. Neither Lithium Nevada nor Federal Defendants will conduct any ground disturbance 14 activities in the Project area in connection with the Thacker Pass Project as challenged in 15 Plaintiffs’ Complaint before July 29, 2021. 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 2. This agreement does not limit BLM’s authority to manage public lands in accordance with any authorizing statute or implementing regulation. FURTHER, the Parties respectfully jointly request that: 1. The Court set a briefing deadline for June 24, 2021 for BLM and Lithium Nevada to file response briefs to Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction. 2. The Court grant BLM and Lithium Nevada leave to file 15 excess pages for their response briefs to Plaintiffs’ Motion for Preliminary Injunction. 23 24 25 26 27 28 3. The Court grant Plaintiffs leave to file a combined reply brief on July 1, 2021 to BLM’s and Lithium Nevada’s response briefs, not to exceed 24 pages. 4. The Court schedule this matter with enough time for the Court to rule on the Motion before July 29, 2021. The parties are available for appearances any time before the 29th of July except for July 2, 5 and 12-16. 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 STIPULATED AND AGREED this 8th day of June, 2021: JEAN E. WILLIAMS Acting Assistant Attorney General United States Department of Justice Environment and Natural Resources Div. /s/ Arwyn Carroll Trial Attorney, Natural Resources Section Massachusetts Bar No. 675926 P.O. Box 7611 Washington, D.C. 20044-7611 Phone: 202-305-0465 arwyn.carroll@usdoj.gov 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 Attorneys for Federal Defendants /s/ Laura K. Granier (SBN 7357) Erica K. Nannini, Esq (SBN 13922) Holland & Hart LLP 5441 Kietzke Lane, 2nd Floor Reno, Nevada 89511 Tel: 775-327-3000 lkgranier@hollandhart.com eknannini@hollandhart.com Attorneys for Lithium Nevada Corp. 18 19 20 21 /s/ Christopher Mixson (NV Bar#10685) KEMP JONES, LLP 3800 Howard Hughes Parkway, Suite 1700 Las Vegas, Nevada 89169 702-385-6000 c.mixson@kempjones.com 22 23 24 25 26 27 Attorney for Plaintiffs /s/ Roger Flynn (CO Bar#21078) Pro Hac Vice Jeffrey C. Parsons (CO Bar#30210), Pro Hac Vice WESTERN MINING ACTION PROJECT P.O. Box 349, 440 Main St., #2 Lyons, CO 80540 (303) 823-5738 wmap@igc.org 28 Attorneys for Great Basin Resource Watch, Basin and Range Watch, and Wildlands Defense 5 1 2 3 4 5 /s/ Talasi B. Brooks (ISB#9712), Pro Hac Vice Western Watersheds Project P.O. Box 2863 Boise ID 83714 (208) 336-9077 tbrooks@westernwatersheds.org Attorney for Western Watersheds Project 6 7 8 9 IT IS SO ORDERED 10 11 12 13 June 8, 2021 _____________ Date ________________________________ United States District Judge 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 6
]]>
Some case metadata and case summaries were written with the help of AI, which can produce inaccuracies. You
should read the full case before relying on it for legal research purposes.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google
Privacy Policy and
Terms of Service apply.
