Environmental and Policy Focus
Allen Matkins
- Nov 19 On Wednesday afternoon, the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board approved amendments to its regional National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System ("NPDES") permit, Order No. R9-2013-0001, regulating discharges from large and medium municipal separate storm sewer systems (Phase I "MS4s") in the San Diego region. Originally adopted in 2013 for jurisdictions in San Diego County, the Regional Water Board is now adding jurisdictions in southwestern Riverside County, which also must now comply with the permit's provisions (jurisdictions in southern Orange County were added earlier this year). Additionally, three important amendments to the MS4 permit were approved—an alternative pathway for achieving compliance with the permit's strict prohibitions and limitations, a definition of "prior lawful approval" for development projects able to proceed under prior regulations, and an extension of the deadline for each jurisdiction to implement a new or updated BMP Design Manual.
Reuters
- Nov 19 U.S. health regulators on Thursday cleared the way for a type of genetically engineered Atlantic salmon, made by Massachusetts-based AquaBounty Technologies, to be farmed for human consumption - the first such approval for an animal whose DNA has been scientifically modified. AquaBounty's product will not require special labeling because it is nutritionally equivalent to conventional farm-raised Atlantic salmon, the FDA said. AquaBounty says its salmon can grow to market size in half the time of conventional salmon, saving time and resources. Activist groups have expressed concerns that genetically modified foods may pose risks to the environment or public health.
New York Times
- Nov 17 The Senate voted on Tuesday to block President Obama’s tough new climate change regulations, hoping to undermine his negotiating authority before a major international climate summit meeting in Paris this month. The Senate resolution, which passed 52 to 46, would scuttle a rule that would significantly cut heat-trapping carbon emissions from existing coal-fired power plants. That rule, released in August by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA"), is the centerpiece of President Obama’s efforts to address climate change. A second resolution, which also passed 52 to 46, would strike a related EPA-promulgated rule intended to freeze construction of future coal-fired power plants. Three Democrats from states in which coal plays a major role in the economy, Senators Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, Heidi Heitkamp of North Dakota, and Joe Donnelly of Indiana, broke party ranks to vote in favor of the resolutions. If the resolutions reach the president’s desk, President Obama has promised a veto.
Los Angeles Times
- Nov 17 A coalition of environmentalists, community groups, and Long Beach officials is seeking a court order to halt construction of a controversial $500-million Port of Los Angeles rail yard that they claim will increase pollution in surrounding low-income, minority communities. During hearings Monday and Tuesday, attorneys representing the group asked Contra Costa Superior Court Judge Barry Goode to order the port to rescind its approval of the proposed Southern California International Gateway. The 153-acre facility, planned by the port and Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Co., would be built in Wilmington in an area bordered on three sides by industrial uses, and schools, playing fields, parks, housing for homeless veterans, and low-income, largely minority residential neighborhoods to the east. The huge staging center for trains hauling cargo from the harbor is predicted to handle up to 8,200 trucks a day and the equivalent of 2.8 million 20-foot shipping containers a year by 2035.
KEYT
- Nov 17 Three environmental groups have filed a lawsuit against Ventura County for a proposed oil drilling project along the Santa Paula Canyon Trail. The plan, which would drill 19 new oil wells along the popular hiking trail, was approved by the Ventura County Board of Supervisors on a 3-2 vote despite objections from hikers, local residents, and scientists. Plaintiffs, the Center for Biological Diversity, Citizens for Responsible Oil & Gas, and Los Padres ForestWatch, claim that Ventura County relied on an outdated environmental impact report from the 1970s and should have conducted a new and updated study of the risks from drilling oil wells in this part of the county.
Sacramento Bee
- Nov 13 Despite forecasts of a wet winter, Californians can expect another year of water conservation in 2016 under an executive order issued last Friday by Governor Jerry Brown. Californians are currently under orders to reduce consumption by an average of 25 percent, as compared with 2013. Brown’s order would extend the cutbacks through next October 31 “if drought conditions persist through January 2016.” Many experts and state officials said it’s almost a certainty the conservation order will continue through next fall. While El Niño is expected to drench the state this winter, many forecasters believe it won’t create enough precipitation to repair water supply problems created by four years of drought.
KPCC
- Nov 19 In the wake of a growing lead pollution investigation in neighborhoods around the now shuttered Exide Technologies plant in Vernon, state toxics regulators have ordered a second lead battery recycler, Quemetco, Inc., in nearby City of Industry to test soil outside its property for lead contamination. The state Department of Toxic Substances Control ("DTSC") has given Quemetco, Inc. until the end of the month to submit a schedule for testing, beginning with a half-mile radius around the facility. As with Exide, testing may eventually stretch up to a mile away from the plant if initial findings indicate the possibility of widespread contamination. Both DTSC and the South Coast Air Quality Management District say the Quemetco plant has a cleaner record than Exide. But the prospect of new soil tests raises the concern that legacy pollution from the facility's more than 50 years of operations may require an expensive cleanup similar to the one underway around Exide. The Quemetco plant processes up to 1.2 million pounds of scrap and lead each day.
Courthouse News Service
- Nov 13 In a complaint filed November 12 against the U.S. Forest Service, the Department of Agriculture, and the supervisor of the Mendocino National Forest, a group of fishermen and environmentalists claim that the Forest Service is six years overdue on creating boundaries and management plans for two Wild and Scenic Rivers in Northern California, the Black Butte River and its tributary, Cold Creek. Plaintiffs claim that both of these rivers are in a degraded condition due to past and ongoing development within their watersheds. The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, adopted in 1968, requires that lands and waters in the Wild and Scenic Rivers System be managed to preserve their free-flowing condition, water quality, and environments "for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations."
