Our Legal Team
Mitchell M. Tsai
Mitchell M. Tsai is a Pasadena attorney who specializes in environmental, land use, and real estate litigation. His expertise includes environmental cases involving environmental impact review (National Environmental Policy Act, California Environmental Quality Act), pollution control (Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act), hazardous waste (Resources Conservation and Recovery Act, Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act commonly known as Superfund), consumer safety (Proposition 65), and land use.
Mr. Tsai received his law degree along with a Certificate in Environmental and Natural Resources law from Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. While in law school, he served as Managing Editor of Environmental Law review, the nation’s oldest law review dedicated solely to environmental issues. He also served as Air Quality Coordinator for the Northwest Environmental Defense Center. He received his undergraduate degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California.
Mr. Tsai worked as a policy advocate and researcher on international peacekeeping, environmental justice, pollution control, and climate change issues. During that time, he worked at the United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research, California League of Conservation Voters, Taiwan Environmental Action Network, and the Fund for Public Interest Research.
Christina M. Caro
Christina M. Caro is a public interest attorney with extensive environmental and civil litigation experience. Ms. Caro obtained her J.D from Golden Gate University School of Law in 2007, and has a B.A. in International Relations and Environmental Studies from the University of California at Berkeley.
Ms. Caro has clerked for both grassroots environmental organizations and local agencies, including the Sierra Club, Earthjustice, and the San Francisco City Attorney Energy and Telecommun-ications Team. Her passion to practice environmental law derives from a desire to better both the human condition and the natural environment, and to do so by working with community-based organizations and disadvantaged members of the public to alleviate environmental and personal harm.
Lawsuit Update — June 2015
December 8, 2015 has been set as the tentative date for the court hearing on the lawsuit regarding LA County Flood Control District's program to excavate 2.4 million cubic yards of sediment from behind Devil's Gate Dam in Hahamongna Watershed Park and to truck it to distant landfills. LA Superior Court Judge Luis Lavin will consider the lawsuit, filed by the Arroyo Seco Foundation and Pasadena Audubon Society last December to challenge the enormous impacts of the County's program on Hahamongna and the surrounding neighborhoods including west Pasadena.
While attorneys Mitchell Tsai and Christina Caro are preparing the challenge of the environmental impact report, they are also aggressively pursuing issues related to several regulatory permits that the Flood Control District must obtain before they can begin their massive sediment trucking operation, which, as planned, would involve more than 425,000 truckloads over a three year period. The regulatory agencies involved, include the US Army Corps of Engineers, the Regional Water Quality Control Board and California Department of Fish and Wildlife, all have the responsibility to protect natural resources, so each can require additional environmental studies and mitigation measures to determine the least damaging practical alternative. These permits could be as important as the lawsuit itself in reducing the negative impacts of the Flood Control District's program and establishing a more sustainable approach to flood and stream management in the Arroyo Seco.
We will keep you informed with regular updates.
No Big Dig Campaign Completes Sending Out Perks
We have now completed sending out all the perks for the Indiegogo crowd-funding campaign that we did several months ago to raise funds for the lawsuit. These premiums included notecards, artistic prints, tshirts, dvds, and other goodies for the more than 200 donors who gave a total of $33,976. If you have not received a perk for your contribution, please let us know so that we can reward you right away.
Pasadena Audubon and the Arroyo Seco Foundation are very grateful for the tremendous community support for the No Big Dig campaign.
Want to Understand the Issues Better?
View the news briefing held to announce the lawsuit. Click on the picture.
How You Can Help
- Host a Hahamongna happening at your home to raise funds to support the lawsuit
- Arrange for a speaker to your school group, PTA or community organization
- Ask local candidates if they support the lawsuit
- Contact city and county officials to let them know your concerns
