Clean Water Act
Could a Riparian Conservation Network increase the ecological resilience of public lands?
A new article suggests river corridors could leverage existing policies to build habitat connectivity
As we try to protect biological diversity for the future, a perpetual challenge is ensuring that the strategies we adopt today will continue to work in the face of changing conditions. How can we design conservation approaches that will be resilient in the face of environmental challenges that will only become more severe in coming years? …
CONTINUE READINGLegal Responses to the Santa Barbara Refugio Oil Spill
Exploring potential penalties and damages
Last Tuesday, a 24-inch underground oil pipeline on the beautiful Santa Barbara County coastline burst for reasons as of yet unknown. Over the course of several hours, an estimated 101,000 gallons of crude oil spilled down a storm drain, on the shoreline, and into the Pacific Ocean. As of late last week, oil had spread …
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CONTINUE READINGIt’s a Wonderful Law?
A thought experiment about the role of the ESA in California water management
[This post is co-authored by A. Dan Tarlock, Distguished Professor of Law, IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law.] Remember the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life,” which shows up on TV every year at Christmas season? In it George Bailey, played by Jimmy Stewart, gets a great gift from Clarence, an angel-in-training who intervenes as George is …
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CONTINUE READINGAccelerating Cost-Effective Green Stormwater Infrastructure: Learning from Local Implementation
A new Berkeley Law report
California decision makers focused on responding to the current drought might question whether stormwater deserves a slice of their attention right now. Although it might be tempting to relegate stormwater planning, management decisions, and infrastructure improvements to a back burner until drought concerns cool off, doing so would be counterproductive. Below, I explain why stormwater management is relevant …
CONTINUE READINGZero Trash
Using the Clean Water Act to Control Marine Debris in California
This post is cross-posted on EcoPerspectives, the environmental law and policy blog of the Vermont Journal of Environmental Law. Let’s talk trash. Human-generated stuff that ends up in the ocean, termed “marine debris” or “marine trash,” presents a critical ocean and coastal management challenge. Trash can be found on coastlines and in seawater worldwide, from …
CONTINUE READINGA win for EPA on mountaintop removal
D.C. Circuit upholds Enhanced Coordination Process, refuses to review agency guidance
The D.C. Circuit has rejected a challenge to consultation procedures developed by the EPA and Corps of Engineers for reviewing mountaintop removal mining permits and to EPA’s guidance for reviewing permits issued by the Corps or state permitting agencies. Because it rests on standard administrative law, the decision shouldn’t merit comment. But it does, because …
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CONTINUE READINGMass. v. EPA bears fruit for environmental petitioners
Court rules that EPA must decide if new water quality standars are needed to protect the Gulf of Mexico
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. A US District Court in Louisiana recently ruled, in Gulf Restoration Network v. Jackson, that EPA must decide whether it has to impose new water quality standards for nutrient pollution in the Mississippi River watershed. Although that might seem far afield from the Supreme Court’s greenhouse gas emissions decision in Massachusetts v. …
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CONTINUE READINGSore Winners
The government has filed a cert. petition in an environmental case (EPA v. Friends of the Everglades) with a really interesting procedural wrinkle. There’s more background about the case after the jump, but you don’t really need the details to understand the main issue. Here’s what you do need to know: 1. After EPA issued …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Gulf Coast Ecosystem Restoration Council’s “Draft Comprehensive Plan for Restoring the Gulf Coast’s Ecosystem and Economy” does not actually include any restoration projects.
Everyone knows that life is just a little bit slower in the South; as it turns out, so is ecosystem restoration. On this date three years ago, you likely were continuing to monitor distressing television footage of the Deepwater Horizon/BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, wondering if the millions of barrels of oil …
CONTINUE READINGWhat’s holding up the Clean Water Act jurisdictional guidance?
Cross-posted on CPRBlog. People on both sides of the political spectrum agree that the boundaries of federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act are murky, to say the least. But efforts by EPA and the Corps of Engineers to clarify those boundaries have been tied up in the White House for more than a year, …
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