Environmental and Policy Focus
Los Angeles Times - Mar 9 Community groups and environmentalists filed suit this week over the South Coast Air Quality Management District's adoption of rules regulating emissions that form ground-level ozone (smog), alleging that the measures are so weak that they violate state law and will hurt public health. The lawsuit asks the court to set aside the District's vote in December that rejected a staff recommendation to overhaul a regional cap-and-trade program for smog-forming emissions from oil refineries, power plants and other major polluters, and instead adopted a version of the regulations proposed by the Western States Petroleum Association. The legal action comes days after a new Republican majority on the District board, whose members have vowed a more industry-friendly approach, voted to fire longtime Executive Officer Barry Wallerstein and to let stand its recently adopted smog regulation. The measures have encountered sharp criticism from area residents as well as from the California Air Resources Board and state lawmakers, who asked the air district board to reconsider.
New York Times - Mar 3 In a significant victory for the Obama administration, the Supreme Court refused last week to stay an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulation limiting emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants. The Court's order denying the stay was issued by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., who decided the question himself without referring it to the full Court. In the stay application, 20 states contended that a federal appeals court in Washington had undermined the Supreme Court's ruling last June in Michigan v. Environmental Protection Agency, which held that the EPA had run afoul of the Clean Air Act by determining it was “appropriate and necessary” to regulate the emissions without considering the costs of regulation. That earlier decision did not strike down the regulation, but it did require the EPA to show how it would take costs into consideration. By refusing to overturn the appellate court's denial of a stay, the Supreme Court has effectively allowed the regulation to remain in effect while the EPA completes its cost analysis.
Sacramento Bee - Mar 8 Following months of negotiations, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s board of directors authorized its general manager to enter into a contract to buy a cluster of islands amounting to 20,000 acres in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (the Delta) from Delta Wetlands Properties, a company controlled by Swiss conglomerate Zurich Insurance Group. The Delta is the conduit through which the state and federal water projects deliver billions of gallons of water from Northern California to the vast farmlands of the San Joaquin Valley and to millions of urban Southern Californians. Zurich bought the properties more than 20 years ago with the idea of converting the islands, some of which lie below sea level, into for-profit reservoirs that could ship water to Southern California in dry years. The plan has never gained traction, and the islands are currently used for farming. Metropolitan’s general manager said the Water District has no plans to use the islands as reservoirs. Instead, it is exploring using at least some of the land to help pave the way for California WaterFix, Governor Jerry Brown’s $15.5 billion plan to build massive twin tunnels beneath the Delta and improve reliability of water shipments to Southern California. Metropolitan is also prepared to use the islands to restore wildlife habitat.
Sacramento Business Journal - Mar 8 A Sacramento court on Tuesday rejected a challenge to the high-speed rail project by Kings County landowners over whose property the project would run. The landowners argued in their lawsuit that the rail authority should lose funding provided by a 2008 ballot measure because it has failed to deliver on promises to voters, including the rail authority’s projections of a 2-hour 40 minute travel time from San Francisco to Los Angeles, which they claimed has been increased due to recent project modifications. Sacramento Superior Court Judge Michael Kenny acknowledged that the rail authority has yet to deliver on assurances, but ruled that high-speed rail is a fluid project and a judgment now would be premature. The court reasoned that, because the rail authority has not yet sought to spend its state bond funds, “the issue of the project’s compliance with the Bond Act is not ripe for review." The ruling leaves open the possibility of renewed litigation over this issue in the future.
San Luis Obispo Tribune - Mar 9 Now that voters in the Paso Robles groundwater basin have overwhelmingly rejected the formation of a groundwater management district this week, it is up to the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors to decide whether it wants to manage the basin or cede responsibility to state water authorities. The board has a little more than a year to decide. The state's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) requires basins that are in critical overdraft, such as the Paso Robles basin, to have a groundwater sustainability agency in place by June 30, 2017. That agency then has until 2020 to adopt a groundwater sustainability plan. Under SGMA, if a groundwater sustainability agency is not formed for a groundwater basin in critical overdraft by the deadline, then the county in which the basin is located becomes the basin's groundwater management agency by default. If the county declines to perform this function, responsibility for groundwater management shifts to the State Water Resources Control Board.
San Diego Union-Tribune - Mar 8 A proposed plan by the County of San Diego would allow more development on thousands of acres of privately held lands within the Cleveland National Forest in East County, pitting landowners and a local tribe against conservationists. The U.S. Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Forest Service, as well as the nonprofit Cleveland National Forest Foundation, have raised concerns that the County’s plan could fragment woodland habitat and negatively impact threatened species. Supporters of the proposal argue it would allow crucial development for rural communities that want to expand basic amenities such as fire stations and water and sewer lines. The County’s proposal comes after a near two-decade ban on building more than one home per 40-acres within the forest. A citizen’s ballot initiative that put the rule in place expired at the end of 2010, leaving officials open to rezone more than 71,000 acres.
