Law Commons^™

Environmental And Natural Resources Law Symposium: Assessing The August 2023 Amendments To The Waters Of The United States Rule In The Wake Of Sackett V. Epa, Ryan Day

Maurer Law Events

In 1982, the Army Corps of Engineers adopted the EPA definition of “waters of the United States.” This brought an end to a smoldering interagency conflict over the definitions under the Clean Water Act. This relationship was formalized with a 1989 Memorandum of Agreement between the EPA and the Corps; the Corps has largely ceded definitional decision making to the EPA, which develops guidance and supporting materials, while the Corps is responsible for most case-specific jurisdictional determinations under Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. In 2023, the agencies embarked on their latest round of rulemaking. In January, the Biden …

Waste And Chemical Management In A 4°C World, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

Many chemicals and hazardous substances are kept in places that can withstand ordinary rain, but not severe storms or floods. If these events occur and the chemicals are released, people and the environment may be endangered. This Article discusses the hazards posed to chemical and waste disposal facilities by extreme weather events that would be worsened as a result of climate change, and how U.S. laws do (or do not) deal with these hazards; and considers how the law would need to change to cope with what would happen to these facilities in a potentially 4°C world. It is adapted …

Beyond Bake Sales: Environmental Justice Through Superfund Removal Actions, Clifford Villa

Faculty Scholarship

Few people outside of EPA seem to be aware of the existence of the Superfund removal program, a program through which millions of dollars are allocated through EPA’s ten regional offices each year for cleaning up contaminated sites that are not designated 'Superfund' sites. This essay will provide a basic introduction to the Superfund removal program and particularly encourage consideration of Superfund removals to address growing concerns for environmental justice. Part II examines the legal authorities and limitations of the Superfund removal program. Part III provides examples of removal actions in environmental justice communities across the country. Part IV considers …

Delegating Climate Authorities, Mark P. Nevitt

Faculty Articles

The science is clear: the United States and the world must take dramatic action to address climate change or face irreversible, catastrophic planetary harm. Within the U.S.—the world’s largest historic emitter of greenhouse gas emissions—this will require passing new legislation or turning to existing statutes and authorities to address the climate crisis. Doing so implicates existing and prospective delegations of legislative authority to a large swath of administrative agencies. Yet congressional climate decision-making delegations to any executive branch agency must not dismiss the newly resurgent nondelegation doctrine. Described by some scholars as the “most dangerous idea in American law,” the …

Can Environmental Law Solve The "Forever Chemical" Problem?, Mark P. Nevitt, Robert V. Percival

Faculty Articles

Although federal environmental law purports to provide the public with comprehensive protection against chemical risks, the U.S. chemical industry is characterized by self­ regulation. This self-regulation is exemplified by the dangers posed by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (''PFAS'')­ broad classes of persistent toxic substances that have now entered nearly every American's bloodstream and hundreds of public drinking water systems. Despite data linking exposure to these "forever chemicals" to cancer, infertility, and a host of other public health harms, environmental law has failed to safeguard the American people from PFAS' toxic legacy. How did this occur? And what should be done …

Preventing Emissions From Slipping Through The Cracks: How Collaboration On New Technologies To Detect Violations And Minimize Emissions Can Efficiently Enforce Existing Clean Air Act Regulations, Kathryn Caballero

Journal Articles

The link between air pollution and poor public health is well known and has been farther documented during the COVID-19 pandemic, 1 but EPA has outdated methods and rules to detect air emissions. Enforcing existing environmental regulations presents challenges because the detection and monitoring technologies identified in the regulations, or the regulation language itself, may not sufficiently identify environmental pollution, let alone complex environmental fraud. How can EPA best use new technologies and concepts to detect violations, with the intent of minimizing emissions, to improve human health and environmental outcomes during the lengthy process of drafting and publishing new regulations? …

Don't Blame The Flint River, Clifford Villa

Faculty Scholarship

Since appearing in modern form fifty years ago, the Clean Water Act has proven a powerful force for environmental justice, helping to clean up urban waterways across the country. Through establishment of water quality standards and enforcement of regulatory requirements, the Clean Water Act has compelled public authorities and private companies to upgrade infrastructure and curtail
discharge of sewage and other industrial effluent. At the same time, urban communities have continued to struggle with water pollution beyond the reaches of the Clean Water Act. This Article briefly examines three such communities: the Anacostia area of Washington, D.C.; the neighborhoods along …

Law Library Blog (March 2021): Legal Beagle's Blog Archive, Roger Williams University School Of Law

Law Library Newsletters/Blog

No abstract provided.

Measuring Environmental Justice: Analysis Of Progress Under Presidents Bush, Obama, And Trump, Mollie Soloway

Student Articles and Papers

No abstract provided.

Presidential Progress On Climate Change: Will The Courts Interfere With What Needs To Be Done To Save Our Planet?, Michael B. Gerrard

Faculty Scholarship

The Biden Administration is undertaking numerous actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition away from fossil fuels as part of the fight against climate change. Many of these actions are likely to be challenged in court. This paper describes the various legal theories that are likely to be used in these challenges, assesses their prospects of success given the current composition of the Supreme Court, and suggests ways to minimize the risks.

The Legal And Administrative Risks Of Climate Regulation, Jonathan Adler

Faculty Publications

Dramatic and rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are necessary to stabilize atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases (GHGs) at acceptable levels. Prioritizing federal environmental regulation as the primary means of achieving these goals may be a strategic mistake. Regulatory mandates, particularly if based upon existing statutory authority, will be vulnerable to legal attack, obstruction, and delay. Climate legislation can reduce the legal risks and accelerate the rate of policy implementation, but only on the margin. Adopting regulatory controls, sector-by-sector, technology-by-technology will be immensely resource intensive for the EPA and other federal agencies. Even with authorizing legislation, federal regulatory strategies may …

Cercla Cleanup 2020.04.09 Response From Epa To Eljc Letter Dated Dec. 2019, United States Environmental Protection Agency

Environmental Law and Justice Clinic - Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Documents

ELJC’s Dec. 13, 2019 letter commented on EPA’s November 15 letter to the Navy regarding the Navy's draft evaluation of radiological soil remediation goals at HPNS. This is EPA’s response to the four concerns identified in that letter: consideration of the risk posed by homegrown produce; lack of health based support for remediation goal for radium-226; retesting’s use of methods to adequately detect pollution; and, the Navy’s repeated unfounded statements to the public that the remediation goals are protective.

Cities And Citizens Seethe: A Case Study Of Local Efforts To Influence Natural Gas Pipeline Routing Decisions, Heidi Gorovitz Robertson

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article explores the reasons local governments find difficulty influencing pipeline-routing decisions. For example, federal law controls interstate natural gas pipeline permitting, which is complicated and inaccessible. State law, particularly in Ohio, heavily favors utilities, in part by preempting local efforts to make local decisions regarding oil and gas development. Finally, the information gaps are enormous between what local governments need to influence pipeline-routing decisions and what is accessible.

This Article addresses barriers to local influence by discussing the efforts of citizens and local governments to influence the routing of NexusSpectra's natural gas transmission pipeline, which was recently constructed and …

Litigating Epa Rules: A Fifty-Year Retrospective Of Environmental Rulemaking In The Courts, Cary Coglianese, Daniel E. Walters

All Faculty Scholarship

Over the last fifty years, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has found itself repeatedly defending its regulations before federal judges. The agency’s engagement with the federal judiciary has resulted in prominent Supreme Court decisions, such as Chevron v. NRDC and Massachusetts v. EPA, which have left a lasting imprint on federal administrative law. Such prominent litigation has also fostered, for many observers, a longstanding impression of an agency besieged by litigation. In particular, many lawyers and scholars have long believed that unhappy businesses or environmental groups challenge nearly every EPA rule in court. Although some empirical studies have …

Environmental Law, Travis M. Trimble

Scholarly Works

Notable cases decided in the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in 2019 all arose out of disputes that originated under the Clean Water Act (CWA). The Eleventh Circuit held that, in preparing an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) in connection with its decision to issue a dredge and fill permit under Section 404 of the CWA, the Corps of Engineers (Corps) was not required to consider potentially negative environmental effects resulting from activity made possible by the permit where the agency had no authority independently to regulate the effects. The court also held that the Environmental Protection …

The Environmental Protection Agency Turns Fifty, Jonathan Adler

Faculty Publications

In anticipation of the fiftieth anniversary of the EPA’s founding, the Coleman P. Burke Center for Environmental Law and the Case Western Reserve Law Review sponsored a symposium to look at the past, present, and future of the EPA. The conference featured an array of environmental-law and -policy experts, including individuals who served in environmental-policy positions in each of the last four presidential administrations, as well as the current EPA Administrator, Andrew Wheeler.

This article is an introduction for the articles from this conference that are published in this special symposium issue of the law review.

Cercla Cleanup 2019.12.13 Letter To Epa On Its November Comments To The Draft Fyr Addendum For Soil, Golden Gate University School Of Law

Environmental Law and Justice Clinic - Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Documents

December 13, 2019 letter to EPA providing additional comments on the Fourth Five Year Review and related documents which must analyze whether the cleanup is protective of human health and the environment: the Navy’s risk assessment should consider consumption of produce grown on the former shipyard; the Navy must provide rationale for the remedial goal used for radium-223; the retesting must use adequate sensitivity to detect radioactivity far below the current remedial goals which are not protective, and; the Navy continues to make unfounded assertions about the protectiveness of the remedy. (6 pages)

Cercla Cleanup 2019.11.07 Letter To Navy - Draft Addendum For Buildings, Golden Gate University School Of Law, Golden Gate University School Of Law

Environmental Law and Justice Clinic - Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Documents

November 7, 2019 letter to the Navy commenting on its Draft Addendum to the Five Year Review (evaluating radiological remedial goals for buildings), noting that the Navy’s process for calculating risk was inconsistent with EPA guidance in numerous instances, and resulted in underestimating risk to human health and the environment. Even so, the resulting risk was outside what EPA considers protective. (14 pages)

Cercla Cleanup 2019.10.14 Letter To Epa Re Concurrence With Fyr Protectiveness, Golden Gate University School Of Law

Environmental Law and Justice Clinic - Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Documents

October 14, 2019 letter to Angeles Herrera, EPA Region 9, Assistant Director, Superfund Division, Federal Facilities and Site Cleanup Branch, commenting that the Navy's protectiveness determinations are inconsistent with EPA's guidance and unsupported by the facts. (32 pages)

Cercla Cleanup 2019.09.06 Comment On Navy Fyr Addendum On Soil, Golden Gate University School Of Law

Environmental Law and Justice Clinic - Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Documents

September 6, 2019 letter to Derek J. Robinson, Navy BRAC Environmental Coordinator, providing comments from Greenaction regarding Navy' s Draft Addendum to Five-Year Review (Evaluation of Radiological Remedial Goals for Soil, Hunters Point Naval Shipyard). (25 pages)

Cercla Cleanup 2019.08.22 Response From Navy Re Remedial Goals And Prg Vs. Resrad, Golden Gate University School Of Law

Environmental Law and Justice Clinic - Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Documents

August 22, 2019 response from the Navy to Greenaction’s June 28 letter pointing to various inadequacies in the Navy’s review of protectiveness in the remedial design for the cleanup at the Shipyard. (2 pages)

Cercla Cleanup 2019.06.28 Navy Use Of Prg Vs. Resrad, Golden Gate University School Of Law

Environmental Law and Justice Clinic - Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Documents

June 28, 2019 letter to Laura Duchnack, BRAC PMO, requesting meaningful public participation and challenging the use of RESRAD. (18 pages)

Nrc Petition: Supplemental Filing 4 Exhibit 2 - Bowers 2nd Nrc Declaration, Golden Gate University School Of Law

Environmental Law and Justice Clinic - Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Documents

Declaration of Bert Bowers in support of June 21, 2019 Supplemental Filing No. 4 and Supplemental Prayer For Relief.

Nrc Petition: Supplemental Filing No. 4, Golden Gate University School Of Law

Environmental Law and Justice Clinic - Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Documents

June 21, 2019 filing to NRC: Supplemental Filing No. 4 and Supplemental Prayer For Relief.

Nrc Petition: Supplemental Filing 4 Exhibit 7 - Declaration Of Steven J Castleman, Golden Gate University School Of Law

Environmental Law and Justice Clinic - Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Documents

Declaration of Steven J. Castleman in support of June 21, 2019 Supplemental Filing No. 4 and Supplemental Prayer For Relief.

Prosecutorial Discretion And Environmental Crime Redux: Charging Trends, Aggravating Factors, And Individual Outcome Data For 2005-2014, David M. Uhlmann

Law & Economics Working Papers

In a 2014 article entitled “Prosecutorial Discretion and Environmental Crime,” I presented empirical data developed by student researchers participating in the Environmental Crimes Project at the University of Michigan Law School. My 2014 article reported that 96 percent of defendants investigated by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and charged with federal environmental crimes from 2005 through 2010 engaged in conduct that involved at least one of the aggravating factors identified in my previous scholarship, namely significant harm, deceptive or misleading conduct, operating outside the regulatory system, and repetitive violations. On that basis, I concluded that prosecutors charged violations that …

Nrc Petition: Supplemental Filing 4 Exhibit 4 - Mclaughlin Declaration, Golden Gate University School Of Law

Environmental Law and Justice Clinic - Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Documents

Declaration of Kevin McLaughlin in support of June 21, 2019 Supplemental Filing No. 4 and Supplemental Prayer For Relief.

Cercla Cleanup 2019.03.15 Parcel G Plan Supplemental Comments, Golden Gate University School Of Law

Environmental Law and Justice Clinic - Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Documents

March 15, 2019 letter to Derek Robinson, HPNS Navy BRAC Environmental, providing comments to the Draft Final Parcel G Removal Site Evaluation Work Plan, Former Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, San Francisco, California, November 2018. (26 pages)

Cercla Cleanup 2019.02.05 Navy Prg Calculations, Golden Gate University School Of Law

Environmental Law and Justice Clinic - Hunters Point Naval Shipyard Documents

February 5, 2019 letter to Thomas A. Macchiarella, BRAC PMO, requesting that the Navy release its Preliminary Remediation Goal calculations to the public related to the Parcel G Work Plan and Five Year Review and reopen public comment on these documents. (4 pages)

Visibility Protection Under The Clean Air Act, Arnold W. Reitze Jr.

Utah Law Faculty Scholarship

The Clean Air Act’s (CAAs) visibility protection program was created in 1977 and expanded in 1990. It applies to states with sources of air emissions that impact 156 Federal Class I areas, which include national parks and wilderness areas. Such states are required to develop haze implementation plans (SIPs) to control emissions in order to restore natural visibility in Class I areas. Initially, large stationary sources that began operating between 1962 and 1977 were to install the Best Available Retrofit Technology (BART) based on regulations issued by EPA. This process resulted in complex rules, litigation, and political maneuvering. Subsequently, the …