The opinion of the court was delivered by: Thelton E. Henderson, Judge United States District Court
IGNACIA S. MORENO Assistant Attorney General Environment and Natural Resources Division U.S. Department of Justice ROBERT D. MULLANEY (Cal. Bar No. 116441) Senior Counsel Environmental Enforcement Section U.S. Department of Justice 301 Howard Street, Suite 1050 San Francisco, CA 94105 Tel: (415) 744-6491 Fax: (415) 744-6476 E-mail: Robert.Mullaney@usdoj.gov Attorneys for Plaintiff United States of America
JOINT STATUS REPORT, STIPULATION, AND [PROPOSED] ORDER
with the Court, stating that the parties continued to make substantial progress toward a reaching 3 a final agreement but had not yet finalized the terms of a settlement. Docket No. 65 at 2.
Management Conference and requiring the parties to provide a joint report on case status, 6 prospects of settlement, and case management scheduling by April 8, 2011. Docket No. 66 at 4. 7
The proposed settlement encompasses disbursement of insurance proceeds, division of
9 annual income, land transfer, covenants, the scope of releases, and deed notice provisions for the 10
Stibnite Mine site. On March 21, 2011, counsel for Bradley Mining and Bradley Trust requested 11 a meeting between his clients and the person at the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") 12
Region 9 who would be responsible for approving the settlement. The meeting was requested to 13 discuss unresolved settlement terms that have remained points of contention between the parties 14 since an exchange of settlement documents in February 2011. As the United States explained to 15
Bradley's counsel on March 23, Jane Diamond, the Director of the Superfund Division, has the 16 authority and responsibility to approve any settlement for EPA Region 9. However, she would 17 not be back in the office until after April 8, 2011, the filing deadline for this joint status report. 18
Pursuant to the Court's Order, all proceedings in this matter, with
the exception of any
further mediation-related proceedings, are stayed until the Initial
Case Management Conference, 21 which is currently set for 1:30 p.m. on
May 9, 2011. Docket No. 66 at 3. At this point, the 22 parties are
seeking to discuss and resolve the remaining issues between them, and
a meeting 23 among the decision makers is scheduled to take place on
April 28. Under these circumstances, 24 the parties would like to
request from the Court an additional stay of litigation and a
continuance 25 of the Initial Case Management Conference and other
deadlines. 26
I attest that concurrence in the filing of this Joint Status Report, Stipulation, and [proposed] Order has been obtained from Mr. Jon K. Wactor, the attorney for Defendants
On January 6, 2011, the parties filed a joint status report, stipulation, and proposed order
Pursuant to the stipulation, this Court entered an Order staying proceedings ...