On August 2, 2016 – after a nearly two-decade long battle – the Eastern District of California entered an order, declaring invalid 26 idle geothermal lease extensions within the Pit River Tribe’s sacred Medicine Lake Highlands.

Medicine Lake and its surrounding highlands have been sacred to the Pit River Tribe, one of the clinic’s oldest clients, for over 10,000 years.  In the 1980’s, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) issued 27 geothermal leases in the highlands surrounding Medicine Lake under the Geothermal Steam Act. In 1998, BLM extended the leases for an additional 40 years without conducting required environmental analyses or consultation with the tribe.  The clinic challenged these lease extensions. After nearly two decades of litigation, including three trips to the 9th Circuit, clinic student Mari Takemoto-Chock (JD ’17) successfully argued for summary judgment before the Eastern District of California on April 19, 2016. The judge issued a remedy order on August 2, 2016 after being briefed on the remedies over the summer.

On November 11, 2016, the clinic journeyed to Sacramento for a meeting with client representatives from  the Pit River Tribe, Native Coalition for Medicine Lake Highlands Defense, Mount Shasta Bioregional Ecology Center, and Medicine Lake Citizens for Quality Environment. Clinic students Mari, Duncan Pickard (JD ’17), and Kirsten Dedrickson (JD ’18) briefed the clients about the remedy order and led a strategy discussion regarding our next steps in the fight to save Medicine Lake.

The clinic is currently preparing for a hearing to amend the remedy judgment.  Despite our win on the merits of our first claim, the remedy order could be read as allowing BLM to extend the non-productive leases for another 40 years without environmental review or consultation with the tribe.  Accordingly, clinic students Mari and Duncan are briefing a motion to amend the judgment, which will be argued by Duncan on December 13, 2016.

Update Jan. 30, 2017: The clinic prevailed on the motion to amend the remedy order, clarifying that BLM may not extend the non-productive leases for another 40 years.  After two decades of dedication from the clinic, environmental groups, and tribal members, the Medicine Lake highlands are now protected from the geothermal development at issue in the case.