Focus
Environmental groups sue Trump administration for weakening Endangered Species Act
San Francisco Chronicle – August 21
A coalition of environmental groups sued the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California this Wednesday challenging the DOI’s rollback of the federal Endangered Species Act. The groups, which include the Sierra Club, the National Parks Conservation Association, and five others, allege that the administration’s move is at odds with the 45-year-old conservation law and threatens the survival of untold numbers of plants and animals by making it easier to remove a species from the endangered list and making it harder to protect their habitat. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said the changes were needed to modernize a burdensome regulatory process that landowners and businesses face when developing land. The changes are to take effect next month. A proposed law in California, SB 1, would expedite the process under the state’s own Endangered Species Act for adding plants and animals to the list of protected species and essentially preserve any federal environmental policy rolled back after the 2016 election.
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News
U.S. appeals court largely upholds 2015 ozone rules
Reuters – August 23
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit today largely upheld U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations from 2015 adjusting the National Ambient Air Quality Standard for ozone from 75 parts per billion to 70 parts per billion, rejecting claims from industry groups that the limits were too hard to attain. Ozone is a pollutant linked to several serious health conditions. Though the three-judge panel was unanimous in upholding the standard, it directed the EPA to revisit secondary public welfare standards which are meant to protect animals and vegetation, and vacated a provision which held certain energy and industrial facilities in the middle of their permitting processes to a less stringent ozone standard.
Federal officials suppressed report on impacts of Central Valley water delivery plan on California salmon
Los Angeles Times – August 21
Federal officials suppressed a 1,123-page environmental document detailing how one of California’s unique salmon runs would be imperiled by federal plans to deliver more water to Central Valley farms. The July 1 assessment outlines how proposed changes in government water operations would harm several species protected by the Endangered Species Act, including perilously low populations of winter-run salmon, as well as steelhead trout and killer whales, which feed on salmon. Two days after federal scientists submitted their biological opinion, a regional fisheries official pulled the document and replaced the authors with a new group tasked with revising the study. Had the opinion been adopted and released, it would have interfered with efforts to ramp up irrigation deliveries to California farm interests with ties to the Trump administration. The revision, critics say, is another example of the administration intervening to weaken environmental protections and reverse the findings of federal scientists. The administration rejects this claim and asserts that the report was a draft that needed more work.
California to build largest wildlife crossing in the world
Associated Press – August 20
Hoping to fend off the extinction of mountain lions and other species that require room to roam, transportation officials and conservationists will build a mostly privately funded wildlife crossing over a major Southern California highway, U.S. 101. Officials say it will be the first of its kind near a major metropolis and the largest in the world, stretching 200 feet above a busy highway and a feeder road northwest of downtown Los Angeles. Habitat loss has driven the populations to inbreeding that could lead to extinction within 15 years unless the big cats regularly connect with other populations to increase their diversity, according to a study published this year by the University of California, Los Angeles, University of California, Davis, and the National Park Service. The $87 million bridge last month entered its final design phase. It is on track for groundbreaking within two years and completion by 2023.
Permitting irregularity prompts state to idle 25 oil and steam wells in Kern County
The Bakersfield Californian – August 21
More than two dozen Kern County oil and steam-injection wells have been idled because of concerns they never received a proper regulatory review, officials with California’s Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) said Tuesday. The 25 wells are owned separately by Chevron Corp. and Berry Petroleum Co. LLC. Both companies said they have complied with the state’s request to shut in the wells. DOGGR has launched an investigation to determine why the wells were approved despite a lack of supporting documentation. The wells were idled after a statewide permitting review sparked by the large oil and water leak at a Chevron operation near McKittrick.
Prenatal vitamin maker settles claims over lead in pills for $1.5 million
Courthouse News Service – August 14
A nutritional health company, Rainbow Light, agreed last Wednesday to pay $1.5 million to settle claims filed by the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office that the company violated California's Proposition 65 and the Unfair Competition Law (Business and Professions Code section 17200) by misleading California customers by advertising its prenatal vitamins as “free of heavy metals” when they actually contained trace amounts of lead. Rainbow Light denied the claims but agreed to test its products every six months to ensure that lead levels are not greater than 0.2 micrograms. If that threshold is crossed, the company will notify Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer’s office, begin an investigation and report back within 45 days with its findings.
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