Law Commons^™

Summers V. Earth Island Institute Rejects Probabilistic Standing, But A 'Realistic Threat' Of Harm Is A Better Standing Test, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

In Summers v. Earth Island Institute, the Supreme Court recently rejected Justice Breyer’s dissenting opinion’s proposed test for organizational standing based upon the statistical probability that some of an organization’s members will likely be harmed in the near future by a defendant’s allegedly illegal actions. Implicitly, however, the Court had recognized some form of probabilistic standing in Friends of the Earth v. Laidlaw, which found standing where plaintiffs avoid recreational activities because of “reasonable concerns” about future health injuries from pollution; Summers did not overrule Laidlaw. There is an inherent tension between the Summers and Laidlaw decisions. This Article applies …

Standing And Future Generations: Does Massachusetts V. Epa Open Standing For Generations To Come?, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Many issues, especially potential environmental catastrophes caused by climate change, affect not just the living, but also future generations. The bias in our political system against addressing the interests of future generations poses serious obstacles in solving long-term environmental problems such as global warming. Because future generations cannot vote, unelected federal judges are more suited to protect their interests than the political branches.

An important question is whether anyone has standing to sue on behalf of future generations in the federal courts. The Supreme Court's Article III standing test requires plaintiffs to demonstrate that they have personally suffered an injury …

Title Vi And The Warren County Protests, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

One part of the 1982 civil rights struggle against building a Polychlorinated Biphenyls ("PCB") landfill in Warren County, North Carolina, was a suit by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People ("NAACP") under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Although the suit was unsuccessful, the Warren County protests led to a 1983 General Accounting Office study and a 1987 United Church of Christ's Commission on Racial Justice (CRJ) study, both of which found that hazardous waste facilities were more likely to be located in minority communities. The Warren County protests and the two studies helped build …

Reforming State Brownfield Programs To Comply With Title Vi, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Many states have adopted voluntary action programs to encourage developers to clean up and redevelop brownfields, former industrial or commercial facilities that have some environmental contamination. While brownfields redevelopment often has important benefits, states often allow cleanups that are less stringent than would otherwise be required and that raises the possibility that redevelopment could pose health risks to neighboring residents. Because many brownfield sites are located in areas with significant minority populastions, there is the potential for disproportionate impacts against these groups. If disparate impacts occur, states are arguably liable under Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The …

Environmental Justice And Title Vi: Making Recipient Agencies Justify Their Siting Decisions, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Title VI prohibits federal agencies from providing funds to state or local agencies that discriminate. Environmental justice advocates have filed over fifty Title VI complaints with the EPA alleging that state or local environmental agencies have granted permits that will cause disparate impacts against minority groups. In February 1998, the EPA promulgated an Interim Guidance on Title VI to help the agency resolve these complaints. A wide range of state and local officials has criticized the Guidance because its vague definition of "disparate impact" may give the EPA too much discretion to find discrimination. This Article demonstrates, however, that the …

Is There A Private Cause Of Action Under Epa's Title Vi Regulations?: The Need To Empower Environmental Justice Plaintiffs, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This article will apply the Chester three-factor test to find a private right of action implied in the administrative regulations promulgated by various agencies to implement Section 602 of Title VI. This article also proposes that it would be inconsistent to apply today's more stringent standard for inferring congressional intent in deciding whether a private right exists under Section 602. Such inconsistency arises as a result of the Supreme Court's application of a more lenient standard in recognizing a private right of action under Section 601.

The Environmental Protection Agency's Project Xl And Other Regulatory Reform Initiatives: The Need For Legislative Authorization, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

The focus of this Article is twofold. First, the Article will show that EPA's reform initiatives are severely hampered by a lack of legal authority, and proposes that Congress give EPA sufficient authority to enact needed reforms. Second, this Article will address concerns that reform will lead to inferior environmental protection and public participation. This Article proposes a number of statutory provisions to ensure that, once EPA has sufficient authority to pursue its reform agenda the agency will do so in a way that avoids a diminution of public health safeguards.

American Mining Congress V. Army Corps Of Engineers: Ignoring Chevron And The Clean Water Act's Broad Purpose, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Part I of this article will provide a brief introduction to section 404 of the Clean Water Act. Part II will examine the Tulloch rule. Part III will examine the district court's opinion. Finally, part IV will demonstrate that section 404(a) is ambiguous regarding whether incidental fallback from dredging may in some circumstances constitute disposal under the statute and, accordingly, that under the Chevron doctrine the district court erred in failing to defer to the agencies' Tulloch rule.

Protecting The Environment For Future Generations: A Proposal For A Republican Superagency, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Part I of this Article introduces the principle that the present generation owes duties to future generations. Part II argues that current environmental laws fail future generations. Part III argues that neither Congress nor the executive branch can protect future generations from environmental harms due to short-term political pressures. Part IV evaluates the current capabilities of agencies to plan for long-term environmental problems. Part V evaluates whether agencies may be capable of better long-term planning by creating a dialogue with the public. Part VI proposes a Superagency to protect the environmental interests of future generations. The Superagency would be independent …

Environmental Justice And Discriminatory Siting: Risk-Based Representation And Equitable Compensation, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This Article proposes a new risk-based approach to representing and compensating not only minorities but any person affected by a siting decision. This proposal would create a formal mechanism for achieving the desire of many environmental justice advocates to empower those local residents most affected by a siting decision. The EPA or state siting agencies, however, would provide a technocratic framework for assessing the scope of risks, despite the limitations of risk and cost-benefit analysis; would set limits on the maximum amount of risk in any community; and would specify the minimum compensation required from a developer. Immediate neighbors, political …

What Comes After Technology: Using An Exceptions Process To Improve Residual Risk Regulation Of Hazardous Air Pollutants, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

Section 112 of the Clean Air Act (the Act) governs the regulation of hazardous air pollutants. From 1970 to 1990, the statute required the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate hazardous air pollutants on a pollutant-by-pollutant basis. Environmental policy analysts generally acknowledge that this approach failed due to scientific uncertainties and unclear direction from Congress on how the EPA should balance the competing concerns of cost and safety. In an effort to improve the Act's effectiveness, Congress passed the 1990 Amendments (the Amendments) to the Act, which established a two-phased approach to regulation. First, subsection 112(d) requires the …

Preventing Bhopal: "Dead Zones" And Toxic Death Risk Index Taxes, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

On December 5, 1984, a pesticide manufacturing plant leaked highly toxic methyl isocyanate (MIC) and the resulting cloud of gas killed over 2,000 people and injured more than 200,000 others living in the shantytowns of Bhopal, India. While no toxic accident in the United States has approached the magnitude of Bhopal, a 1988 United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study found that 11,048 accidental releases of extremely hazardous substances occurred between 1982 and 1986. These accidents caused 309 deaths, 11,341 injuries and the evacuation of 464,677 people from homes and jobs. The EPA estimated that seventeen of these accidents could …

The Two-Headed Dragon Of Siting And Cleaning Up Hazardous Waste Dumps: Can Economic Incentives Or Mediation Slay The Monster, Bradford Mank

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

This Article will show that neither economic incentives nor mediation alone has been successful in addressing the issues of siting or remediation, despite good theoretical reasons for the success of both approaches. This Article advocates a two-pronged approach of using economic incentives and mediation together to attack the dilemmas of siting and remediation. A developer could offer to remediate an orphan or MSW landfill site, and thereby improve public safety, in exchange for the opportunity to build a new, less risky hazardous or solid waste disposal facility.15 In conjunction with mediation and negotiated compensation, this proposal may be able to …