Washington, DC — A senior environmental enforcement attorney with more than 20 years of experience within the Department of Justice, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of the Interior, is joining Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) as its new General Counsel. PEER represents public health and environmental whistleblowers, and pursues lawsuits and other environmental enforcement actions identified by current and former agency scientists, inspectors, rangers and other specialists

Joanna Citron Day comes to PEER with more than two decades of federal service as –

• A senior counsel at the U.S. Department of Justice where she litigated clean water, air, and hazardous waste cleanup cases, among other matters;
• An attorney within EPA’s Office of Civil Enforcement, where she specialized in Clean Water Act cases addressing cities’ chronic treatment plant permit violations for failure to adequately treat and store raw sewage and contaminated wastewater; and
• An attorney in DOI’s Office of the Solicitor working on cases involving cleanup of hazardous wastes on federally managed lands.

“Joanna’s broad and in-depth experience makes her a perfect fit for PEER,” said PEER Executive Director Tim Whitehouse, himself a former senior EPA enforcement counsel. “She understands the law, but also how federal agencies work and what motivates their actions as well as their disappointing inaction.”

As General Counsel, she will direct PEER’s overall legal program, including its robust litigation docket. She will also supervise other PEER attorneys.

“Joining PEER allows me to continue serving the public at a pivotal time when the challenges of public service have never been more daunting,” commented Citron Day. “PEER plays a unique role of directly enforcing environmental and public health laws but also protecting the dedicated staff charged with their administration.”

PEER’s General Counsel for the past 19 years, Paula Dinerstein, will remain on PEER’s legal team in the position of senior counsel where she will continue managing selected cases and providing strategic advice.

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