Focus
Federal judge strikes down Trump rule governing water pollution
The New York Times – August 23
In the latest episode of a long-running battle concerning the reach of federal jurisdiction over surface waters, Judge Rosemary Márquez of the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona on Monday struck down a Trump-era rule that had limited the scope of “Waters of the United States.” The rule, established in 2020, prevented the federal government from prohibiting, under the federal Clean Water Act, discharges of pollutants such as fertilizers, pesticides and industrial chemicals into smaller streams and wetlands. The Biden administration had already begun the lengthy process of undoing the 2020 rule, which, in turn, had narrowed an expanded definition of Waters of the United States adopted during the Obama administration. Judge Márquez said that the 2020 rule, which was jointly written by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers, conflicted with Clean Water Act requirements and appeared to disregard the EPA’s own scientific findings that indicate allowing pollution in small bodies of water could significantly harm the health of larger bodies of water and their ecosystems.
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News
California water suppliers cast 1st challenge to strict drought rules
Courthouse News Service – September 1
A group of California water agencies in one of the state’s most fertile farming areas, the Banta-Carbona, Patterson, and West Stanislaus irrigation districts, sued this Wednesday to freeze the latest round of emergency drought rules. In a lawsuit filed in Sacramento County Superior Court, the suppliers argue they were denied due process when state regulators ordered thousands of landowners last month to cease diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta due to drought conditions. They claim the sweeping water curtailments are based on faulty data and will cause permanent damage to valuable fruit and nut orchards.
Biden administration to resume drilling auctions
Reuters – August 31
The Biden administration announced plans on Tuesday to open millions of acres for oil and gas exploration as the White House sought to comply with a court order requiring it to resume lease auctions. The move includes some 80 million acres within Gulf of Mexico waters, along with potentially hundreds of thousands more onshore. The administration paused drilling auctions after Biden took office in January pending an environmental impact analysis. That review is ongoing.
California voters wait on water projects
Associated Press – September 1
In 2014, in the middle of a severe drought, California voters authorized $7.5 billion in bonds that would be used to build water storage projects. Seven years later, that drought has been succeeded by an even hotter and drier one, but none of the more than half-dozen water storage projects scheduled to receive that money has been built. The largest project, the Sites Reservoir in Northern California, would be the state’s first new reservoir of significant size in more than 40 years. The latest drought has revived the project, to which the Biden administration recently committed $80 million, the largest appropriation made to any water storage project scheduled to receive funding next year.
Activists and residents demand cleanup of contaminated Santa Susana Field Lab
Los Angeles Daily News – August 30
Environmental justice groups gathered on Monday in front of the California EPA building in Sacramento, demanding cleanup of contaminated sites around the state, including the Santa Susana Field Lab above the San Fernando and Simi Valleys. Santa Susana Field Lab was used to test rocket engines and other activities for decades, and, in 1959, a nuclear reactor partially melted down at the site.
Southern California desert farmers will earn millions to fallow fields, save Colorado River water
The Desert Sun – August 27
Farmers who control the Palo Verde Irrigation District near the Arizona border voted unanimously this month to agree to cancel planting some of their crops for three years, thereby leaving extra water in the rapidly declining Lake Mead reservoir. They will be paid about $925 per acre this year – for a total of about $38 million over three years – with federal drought response funds and water ratepayer funding collected in in Arizona, Nevada, and Southern California. With continued drought and overuse, a first-ever shortage in the Colorado River system was declared a week ago by federal authorities, triggering cuts to Arizona, Nevada, and Mexico's supplies next year.
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