WHEN Justice Funding Helps Secure Major Landfill Improvements in Settlement with Waste Giant Republic Services
Settlement requires major pollution-control upgrades, expanded environmental monitoring, and $520,000 for local environmental projects.
RICHMOND, California — With funding support from WHEN Justice, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) has secured a court-approved settlement with Republic Services requiring significant pollution-control improvements at the West Contra Costa Sanitary Landfill in Richmond, California.
The settlement follows CSPA's legal challenge over contaminated stormwater and landfill leachate allegedly escaping the facility and threatening surrounding waterways. It requires substantial infrastructure upgrades, expanded environmental monitoring, and $520,000 for projects supporting water quality, pollution prevention, and ecosystem restoration in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The agreement also marks the second major environmental settlement supported by the same pool of funding from WHEN Justice, a nonprofit that mobilizes capital for public-interest litigation.
The funding originated with a forgivable-recoverable grant from WHEN Justice founder Roland Peralta that helped CSPA pursue litigation against AT&T over abandoned lead-covered telecommunications cables in Lake Tahoe. Following a settlement that led to the removal of six miles of cables in 2024, WHEN redeployed $50,000 in recovered funds to CSPA's landfill case. Peralta matched that contribution with another $50,000.
In total, WHEN raised $105,870 to support the independent technical expertise needed to advance CSPA's case and evaluate potential solutions.
“This is exactly why funding public-interest litigation matters,” said Jacqueline Biner, CEO and Legal Officer of WHEN Justice. “Even a strong case still requires the resources to develop the technical evidence, evaluate proposed solutions, and negotiate an outcome that actually addresses the problem. WHEN was able to use the capital from one successful case to help CSPA bring needed resources to the table in another.”
A Settlement Focused on Long-Term Protection
Under the agreement, Republic Services' subsidiaries must make substantial improvements to the landfill's stormwater management and leachate extraction systems.
These include installing new extraction wells, upgrading existing infrastructure to better contain contaminated liquids, strengthening stormwater and erosion controls, and expanding water-quality testing. Together, the measures are designed to prevent contaminated water from migrating beyond the landfill and into surrounding groundwater and waterways.
The settlement establishes four years of monitoring and oversight, including CSPA access to environmental data and facility inspections. If the landfill fails to demonstrate that it can keep the water flowing inwards rather than outwards after January 1, 2029, CSPA may terminate the portion of the settlement relating to those issues, preserving its ability to pursue those claims again.
The agreement also directs $520,000 toward projects protecting and restoring local waterways and ecosystems.
One Grant. Multiple Opportunities for Impact.
The settlement illustrates WHEN Justice's Pay-It-Forward Grant model, which provides funding for individual public-interest cases with the potential for recovery following a monetary settlement or judgment.
If a case produces no monetary recovery, repayment is forgiven. When eligible funds are recovered, WHEN can redeploy that capital to support additional litigation.
For CSPA, the grant provided access to specialized technical expertise without the risk of repayment if the litigation failed to produce a monetary recovery. That support helped strengthen the organization's ability to evaluate evidence, assess proposed remedies, and negotiate meaningful protections.
With the Republic Services settlement providing for reimbursement of eligible litigation costs, approximately $100,000 will return to WHEN's grant pool, making the same capital available to support another public-interest case.
From removing lead-covered cables in Lake Tahoe to strengthening pollution controls at a San Francisco Bay Area landfill, the funding has now helped advance two distinct environmental cases, with the potential to support more.