The U. S. House Committee on Natural Resources hearing held on Thursday, June 15, 2023, was singularly focused on H.R. 3397, sponsored by Rep. John R. Curtis (R-UT-3), which requires the Director of the Bureau of Land Management (“USBLM”) to withdraw its‘ Conservation and Landscape Health Proposed Rule. This is the second such committee hearing held […]
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The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has initiated the Environmental Impact Statement (“EIS”) process for post-2026 operational guidelines and strategies of Lake Powell and Lake Mead. This process is in addition to the Draft Supplemental EIS we discussed in April, which is intended to ensure that the reservoirs continue to be able to produce power and […]
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It seems that not a day goes by without another news story bringing Arizona to the forefront of a national dialogue about water security in a time of drought, changing climate, and growing population. This article is Part 6 of Snell & Wilmer’s series providing context for that dialogue as it applies to Arizona’s diverse […]
While various States have enacted various regulations covering a wide variety of differing standards over the years, the EPA never created a national standard for remedial or drinking water levels. Finally, after decades of considering proposals and counter proposals, the EPA made a “final” determination in July 2020 during the Trump administration that perchlorate was […]
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On April 3, 2023, the Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) published a proposed rule to promote the conservation of the 245 million acres of public lands it manages. The proposal purports to advance “BLM’s mission to manage the public lands for multiple use and sustained yield by prioritizing the health and resilience of ecosystems across […]
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by Mitchell J. Klein Environmental practitioners are well aware of the astonishing breadth and scope of the impacts resulting from the investigations into the ubiquitous presence of the so-called “forever chemicals”, including the significant efforts being expended at both the State and Federal level on regulating their use and establishing remedial standards. But PRPs, landowners, […]
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by John W. Andrews On June 8, 2022, the U.S. Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued formal guidance[1] describing BLM’s policy for authorizing use of federal public lands for site characterization, injection, and geologic sequestration of carbon dioxide (CO2) for carbon capture and storage (CCS). BLM Instruction Memorandum 2022-041 (IM 2022-041) […]
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by Luke Narducci and Amanda Reeve On May 5, 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice (“USDOJ”) announced the launch of a new comprehensive environmental justice (“EJ”) strategy. The three-prong strategy, as laid out by the U.S. Attorney General in an internal memorandum, includes: Supplemental Environmental Projects (“SEPs”) are projects that are undertaken by an […]
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by John Habib The United Nations Human Rights Council passed Resolution 48/13 in October 2021. The Resolution recognizes as a human right a person’s access to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment. Non-governmental organizations are now pushing the United Nations General Assembly to formally adopt Resolution 48/13. The United States did not take part in […]
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by Patrick J. Paul On Wednesday, April 6, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision stayed a Northern District of California Court decision that both remanded and vacated EPA Trump-era rules regarding water quality certification of projects under Clean Water Act Section 401. The California District Court in 2021 in In re Clean Water […]
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