Water
TMDL Fight Brewing in Chesapeake Bay
On December 29, 2010, EPA finalized a plan to reduce nutrient pollution in Chesapeake Bay by implementing a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) budget using its Clean Water Act authority. That plan will require a 25% reduction in nitrogen, a 24% reduction in phosphorus and a 20% reduction in sediment throughout the watershed. This includes …
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CONTINUE READINGNew White Paper on Reducing Water Use to Save Energy
In California, we’re always talking about conserving water, usually because of a drought, and increasingly because of our growing population and likely future of water shortages due to climate change. But research shows another compelling reason: conserving water means conserving energy. Pumping and treating water is energy-intensive — the state water project, with its big …
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CONTINUE READINGGreat New Blog: AJWS Global Voices
American Jewish World Service, one of the most effective international anti-poverty and pro-development organizations in the worlds, has a new blog up. It’s called Global Voices, and features not only the work of AJWS grantees but also how issues of poverty and human rights interact with ecosystem protection. Some of the recent posts focus on …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Public Trust Doctrine: A Prophet Without Honor
Michael C. Blumm and R.D. Guthrie of Lewis & Clark Law School have an interesting new paper soon to appear in the U.C. Davis Law Review, pointing out that the public trust doctrine has assumed enormous significance in the jurisprudence of several countries around the world, including India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Uganda, Kenya, South …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Dying Dead
Can something that’s Dead still be dying? It can if it’s the Dead Sea and if it’s rapidly disappearing. And it is. Check out this piece from this month’s Scientific American, which details the disappearance of the Dead Sea — which is really a highly saline lake — due to four states (Israel, Jordan, Syria, …
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CONTINUE READINGBush-era EPA § 404 veto survives judicial review
A federal court in Mississippi has rejected a legal challenge to EPA’s 2008 veto of a Clean Water Act § 404 permit for the Yazoo Pumps flood control project. (Hat tip: PLF Liberty Blog.) The Yazoo Pumps project was an anachronism, even by pre-environmental era standards. (This brief history of the project is based on …
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CONTINUE READINGWhite House review delays EPA mountaintop removal guidance
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. EPA has announced that it will delay finalizing its guidance memorandum on Clean Water Act permitting for mountaintop removal mining projects pending review by the White House Office of Management and Budget. The announcement is bad news for Appalachian streams, and worse news for environmental interests hoping the Obama administration won’t completely …
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CONTINUE READINGRight on the Commerce Clause, wrong on the ESA
Cross-posted at CPRBlog. As Rick noted earlier, the Ninth Circuit is now the fifth federal circuit court of appeals to reject a Commerce Clause challenge to the ESA. In San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority v. Salazar, a Ninth Circuit panel upheld protection of the Delta smelt. I agree with Rick’s analysis of the Commerce …
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CONTINUE READINGThe question of triage
The latest Delta report issued by the Public Policy Institute of California goes well beyond the Delta. Titled Managing California’s Water: From Conflict to Resolution, the report takes on the entire water management structure set up by state and federal law. There’s a lot in the report, which should be required reading for anyone interested …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia’s Delta Stewardship Council Gets Down to Business
Today California’s Delta Stewardship Council begins its deliberations on a Delta Plan that promises to be a big part of the answer to one of that state’s most pressing environmental questions: can California’s Delta be saved? Creation of the Delta Stewardship Council was a key element of landmark 2009 California legislation designed to address the …
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