Focus
THE HILL - Jun 15 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Army Corps of Engineers on Friday sent their proposal to redefine “Waters of the United States” to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review. It is the final step before the agencies can release the proposal for public comment. The Waters of the United States rule defines which bodies of water are subject to federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. The rule as proposed by the Obama Administration in 2015 was written with the intention to clarify that small waterways like ponds and headwaters can be protected. But agriculture, developers, and other industries complained that it was too far-reaching and would improperly subject huge swaths of land to federal oversight.
COURTHOUSE NEWS SERVICE - Jun 13 On Tuesday, Judge William Shubb, of the U.S. Eastern District of California in Sacramento, rejected California’s last-ditch effort to force agricultural chemical manufacturer Monsanto to place Proposition 65 warning labels on its Roundup products. In February, Judge Shubb had issued an order enjoining California regulators from requiring Monsanto to use cancer warning labels on Roundup products on the ground that the evidence supporting the warnings was "false and misleading," so that forcing Monsanto to post the warnings would amount to forced speech in violation of the First Amendment. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra sought reconsideration of this ruling on the basis of new evidence, specifically, an intervening ruling from a California state appellate court that the state's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment acted appropriately when it classified glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup products, as a possible carcinogen even though the classification was based on findings from a foreign health organization study. Judge Shubb denied the state's motion, holding that the new evidence did not warrant reconsideration.
SFGATE - Jun 12 The San Francisco Board of Supervisors this Tuesday unanimously approved a $425 million bond measure for the November 6 ballot to pay for upgrades to the city’s century-old Embarcadero seawall. City leaders say this bond funding is vital to securing 3 miles of shoreline from the threat of earthquakes and sea level rise. The Embarcadero seawall wraps the city’s northeastern waterfront from Fisherman’s Wharf to Mission Creek and supports an estimated $100 billion worth of property, including the Ferry Building, BART tunnels, and part of the Financial District. Engineers fear the seawall will slip 5 feet into the bay in a major earthquake. Also this week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers announced that its tentative work plan for the year includes studying San Francisco’s seawall and studying ways to reduce the local flood risk.
THE NEW YORK TIMES - Jun 7 The U.S. EPA is scaling back the way it assesses health and safety risks associated with the most dangerous chemicals on the market. Under an amendment to the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) passed by Congress with strong support from both parties during the final year of the Obama administration, the EPA was required to evaluate hundreds of potentially toxic chemicals, including those in dry-cleaning solvents, paint strippers, and health and beauty products, and determine if they should face new restrictions, or even be removed from the market. In its review of the first batch of 10 chemicals, the EPA has in most cases decided to exclude from its calculations any potential exposure caused by the substances’ presence in the air, soil, or water, according to documents released last week by the agency. Instead, the EPA will confine its review to possible harm caused by direct contact with a chemical in the workplace or elsewhere. As a result, human contact resulting from improper disposal of the chemicals under review that leads to, for example, contamination of drinking water, will often not be a factor in the EPA’s decision as to whether to restrict or ban them.
THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE - Jun 8 The California Fourth District Court of Appeal ruled last Thursday that a city of San Diego ordinance that closed part of a popular La Jolla beach known as Children’s Pool during the pupping season for seals is legal. The case centered on a challenge to an ordinance adopted by the city in 2014, after years of conflict between beach access advocates and those who supported protection for the seals and claimed that human activity on the beach caused the animals, particularly mother seals, to “flush” or flee into the ocean, leaving behind pups that were too young to swim. A local community group sued the city and the Coastal Commission, which had also approved the new ordinance, contending it violated the state Coastal Act and was pre-empted by the federal Marine Mammal Protection Act, which gives the federal government control over protection of species like the seals. The appellate court concluded that the ordinance was an exercise of the city’s inherent power to regulate use of its property.
