Environmental and Policy Focus
CourtHouse News - Jan 7
The County of Los Angeles should not have been held liable for transporting polluted water that flows from a river down concrete-lined portions of the same river and back into the river, the Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.
South Lake Tahoe Daily News - Jan 8
Regional conservation groups are celebrating a federal judge's 114-page ruling to send a proposed Sierra ski resort expansion back to the drawing board, a decision viewed by local government and the project's developer as a minor roadblock in a years-long, multimillion-dollar effort to upgrade a major portion of land off Lake Tahoe's West Shore.
NBC Los Angeles - Jan 5
A group of neighborhood associations and residents in Pasadena has filed a lawsuit attempting to block city plans to offer the Rose Bowl as a temporary home to an NFL team that moves to Southern California while a permanent stadium is finished. Announced Friday, a day after it was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court, the lawsuit challenges an environmental report approved by the Pasadena City Council that was the first step to bringing a team to the Rose Bowl, currently home to only college football.
CourtHouse News - Jan 7
The government cannot regulate the degree to which nonpollutants, even those that arguably act as pollutant surrogates, flow into polluted bodies of water. On that basis, a federal judge ruled that EPA could not adopt a TMDL (total maximum daily load) to limit storm water flow rates as a surrogate for sediment concentrations.
New York Times - Dec 27
Lisa P. Jackson is stepping down as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency after a four-year tenure that began with high hopes of sweeping action to address climate change and other environmental ills but ended with a series of rear-guard actions to defend the agency against challenges from industry, Republicans in Congress and, at times, the Obama White House.
The Huffington Post - Jan 6
An ongoing U.S. Environmental Protection Agency study on natural gas drilling and its potential for groundwater contamination has gotten tentative praise so far from both industry and environmental groups. But a 275-page progress report was released in December and, for all its details, shows that the EPA doesn't plan to address one contentious issue — how often drinking water contamination might occur.
Bloomberg News - Jan 4
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave states too much flexibility in meeting soot standards, a federal court said in a ruling that could force some states to increase pollution-control efforts. The EPA applied the wrong section of the Clean Air Act, relying on general implementation standards instead of particle-specific requirements, U.S. Circuit Judge Karen Lecraft Henderson said in an 18-page opinion, which evaluated guidelines issued by the environmental agency in 2007, during the administration of President George W. Bush.
Environmental Leader - Jan 8
The EPA has withdrawn a controversial rule governing the reporting of cadmium and cadmium compounds, admitting the regulation had caused serious confusion and uncertainty.
Los Angeles Times - Jan 2
The California Department of Fish and Game has become the California Department of Fish and Wildlife as a result of a new law written by U.S. Rep.-elect Jared Huffman (D-Calif.).
