SALT LAKE CITY — A coalition of environmental groups have asked a judge to keep a lawsuit over the future of the Great Salt Lake alive.
In a new court filing on Monday, attorneys for Utah Physicians for Healthy Environment, Utah Rivers Council, American Bird Conservancy, Center for Biological Diversity and Sierra Club asked 3rd District Court Judge Laura Scott to once again reject the state's efforts to dismiss the litigation.
"In denying multiple motions to dismiss (twelve in total), this Court recognized the fundamental principle that 'courts play an essential role in declaring and enforcing the public trust,'" attorney Heidi McIntosh, with the firm Earthjustice, wrote.
"Yet State Defendants, in a motion for judgment on the pleadings, now once again ask this Court to disregard its essential role and render the public trust unenforceable. This time, State Defendants argue that the public duty doctrine precludes Plaintiffs’ public trust claims—a position that has not been adopted by any court in the United States (and notably was not raised in State Defendants’ slew of motions to dismiss or in the several-dozen affirmative defenses included in their answers). This novel argument is meritless."
In a recent court filing, lawyers for the state cited a Utah Supreme Court ruling on homelessness as a "public nuisance" to justify dismissing the litigation. This is the environmental plaintiffs' response.
Judge Scott has so far refused to dismiss the lawsuit, which accuses the state of not doing enough to save the Great Salt Lake, which has dropped to historic lows.
