Showing posts with label Enviro Waterkeeper Alliance. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Enviro Waterkeeper Alliance. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Farm pollution lawsuit spurs public relations battle

Farm pollution lawsuit spurs public relations battle


Poultry industry, environmental groups fund lawyers for national bellwether



By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun

March 19, 2012

With a catch in her throat, Kristin Hudson talks in a video posted online about her young daughter asking if "they" will take away her daddy's farm.

The video, featured on SaveFarmFamilies.org rallied farmers and others across the country to the side of an Eastern Shore farm couple fighting an environmental group's lawsuit alleging that the farm polluted a Chesapeake Bay tributary.

The Web-based organization has raised more than $200,000 to date from Perdue Farms, agricultural groups and other farmers to help Alan and Kristin Hudson pay legal bills in the 2-year-old case, according to one of the group's leaders. Meanwhile, two Maryland foundations with environmental agendas have poured a comparable amount into supporting the suit filed by the Waterkeepers Alliance… http://www.baltimoresun.com/features/green/bs-gr-chicken-farmer-campaign-20120319,0,1037150,full.story



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Monday, January 9, 2012

Farrell Keough: UMD law clinic sues on behalf of the 1 percent

UMD law clinic sues on behalf of the 1 percent


Farrell Keough December 30, 2011

The University of Maryland Carey School of Law Environmental Law Clinic's pro bono legal services for the Waterkeepers Alliance are supporting organizations that would qualify as 1 percenters if they were individuals. Associate Dean Teresa LaMaster defended this action in a recent radio interview, stating that the Waterkeepers Alliance "don't really have the resources to fund a case," and their "local organizations are not well funded and don't really have the resources to bring a case like this."

The evidence portrays a very different scenario. The 2010 tax returns from the Waterkeepers Alliance confirm that their New York organization had over $400,000 in cash, generated $3.6 million in revenue, and over $16 million in contributions over the last five years.

They also provide their organizations, including Assateague Coastal Trust (co-plaintiffs in this suit), "with a wealth of resources including a team of experts in environmental law." The New York organization also spent over $300,000 in 2010 on one of their annual conferences in La Paz, Mexico.

The group's annual fundraiser is Skifest — a celebrity filled event hosted in Deer Valley, Utah. This fundraiser brings in $435,000 for the title sponsor and $135,000 for corporate sponsors. The 2010 tax forms for Assateague Coastal Trust shows over $333,000 in cash and investments and $336,057 in revenue generated.

With millions in cash and revenues, the justification by Ms. LaMaster for pro bono support has no merit. By this logic… 




Related: Maryland environmental law clinic focuses on enforcement
University program under fire for pursuing pollution case

Governor right to defend family farm

O'Malley voices disapproval of law school clinic's pollution suit
Governor calls action against Eastern Shore farmer and Perdue 'costly litigation of questionable merit'



Friday, January 6, 2012

Save Farm Families Fundraiser planned for the Hudson Family on February 18, 2012


Save Farm Families Fundraiser planned for the Hudson Family on February 18, 2012

When: Saturday, February 18, 2012
Time: 3:00pm until 8:00pm

At Queen Anne's County 4-H Park; Centreville, MD

The Hudson Family of Berlin, Maryland is being sued by the New York based Waterkeeper Alliance. They operate a poultry and beef farm in Worcester County, Maryland. 100% of the funds raised will go to help the Hudson family pay their legal bills. This event is sponsored by the Caroline, Cecil, Kent, Queen Anne's and Talbot County Farm Bureaus.


Our goal is simple: Stand up and protect struggling farm families from bankruptcy triggered by extremist groups and their lawsuits.

For more than two centuries, family farms have been critical to the Maryland economy and the state’s way of life. Many of us are the sons and daughters of men and women who farmed, fished and raised their families in every corner of the Free State.

The Maryland Family Farmers Legal Defense Fund, Inc. was created to help Alan and Kristin Hudson, who run a family farm located near Maryland’s Eastern Shore, pay their mounting legal bills and to call attention to the threat that radical groups like the Waterkeeper Alliance pose to every family farm in America. Unless we stop them in the courtroom, Maryland’s largest industry, responsible for 14 percent of the state’s workforce, could disappear forever.


[20120218 Save Farm Families Fundraiser]