Environmental Law Clinic Director Michael Harris leads suit against Christo’s "Over the River" Project

Our very own Professor Michael Harris, Director of the Environmental Law Clinic, is leading several law students in a suit against Christo’s "Over the River" project. Last November, the project was approved by the Bureau of Land Management, which allows the project to hang 5.9 miles of aluminum-coated material over a 42 mile stretch of the Arkansas River in southern Colorado.

On behalf of a grassroots, all-volunteer citizen group, Rags Over the Arkansas River (ROAR), the suit was filed February 1st, 2012 by third-year law students Mason Brown and Justine Shepherd under the supervision of Professor Harris.

According to the suit, the project will be built almost entirely within federally designated Arkansas Canyonlands Area of critical environmental concern that will take 28 months to construct and 12 months to remove. The project will include intensive construction practices to implement, including heavy equipment normally found in mining and road construction (i.e. hydraulic drills, various types of excavators, cranes, grouters, water tanks, grout mixers, support trailers, steel rock anchors, and anchor frames). The group opposes the project due to environmental issues and dangers to the residents and visitors to the area.

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