Navajo government officials, environmental groups want review of BLM’s Chaco Canyon leases: “Environmental groups and Navajo government officials are criticizing the U.S. Bureau of Land Management over the bureau’s handling of oil and gas leases approved in the Greater Chaco area. Navajo leaders and 16 tribal and environmental organizations addressed their concerns in a letter sent to BLM’s New Mexico state director Tim Spisak last week calling for more public hearings on the issue. “We urge you to reject the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s Findings of No Significant Impact and Environmental Assessments,” the letter reads. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in May that BLM violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it approved environmental assessments for five sets of oil and gas wells that did not address the cumulative water impacts of nearly 4,000 horizontal Mancos Shale wells in the Greater Chaco region. The ruling covered environmental assessments approved by BLM for 25 applications to drill in the area. According to WildEarth Guardians, BLM published its revised environmental assessments additional information two days after the court ruling, and opened a 10-day comment period during the first week of July—during the 4th of July holiday. “The Tribes have spoken, Congressional leaders have spoken, and the courts have ruled that BLM must do more than rubberstamp oil and gas proposals, yet the agency continues to do more to benefit industry and less to benefit people,” Navajo Nation Council Delegate Daniel Tso said in a statement. Tso represents the Tribal chapters that are impacted by the BLM’s actions and is a signee of the letter.”

[NM Political Report, 7/16/19] http://bit.ly/2LWSDsX

Advocates continue fighting for alternative solution to Oak Hill Parkway: “While the Texas Department of Transportation prepares to initiate a request for proposals for the Oak Hill Parkway project at the intersection of U.S. Highway 290 and State Highway 71, local advocacy groups are still aiming to stop the project from moving ahead in its current form. On July 9, the Save Barton Creek Association, with signatures from 13 other local groups, sent a letter urging James Bass, executive director of TxDOT, and Tucker Ferguson, engineer of the TxDOT Austin District, to take another look at the plan and consider alternative designs that the groups say would benefit the Oak Hill community while mitigating the project’s environmental impact. Environmental groups and concerned residents articulated numerous issues with the project prior to both votes, asking both CAMPO and Council to push back against the state’s plans. Among the many objections, residents have repeatedly pushed to downsize the elevated 12-lane junction, citing potential hazards to the nearby Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer, Williamson Creek and the Oak Hill neighborhood. Other citizens expressed frustration that the design had changed very little since the initial plans for a toll road were scrapped. The joint letter re-emphasizes all of these issues and directs attention to the fact that the state has continued to make adjustments to the project design, despite the final environmental impact statement and record of decision having been issued in December 2018. The letter says that following the EIS, changes have been made to the number of lanes, the shared-use path and the flood risk modeling. “These are all items that should be included within the (environmental impact statement) process,” the letter states.”

[Austin Monitor, 7/16/19] http://bit.ly/2GfqnxP

Environmental Groups Sue to Stop Fracking Near Petrified Forest National Park: “Three environmental groups sued the Bureau of Land Management Monday to prevent fracking for natural gas and oil in more than 4,000 acres of public land near a national forest in Arizona and the state’s most important aquifer. When the bureau issued the drilling leases last year near the Petrified Forest National Park, it used decades-old environmental impact data, according to the Center for Biological Diversity and other plaintiffs who filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for Arizona. The plaintiffs claim the agency failed to consider new drilling technologies or environmental science, including predicted effects of climate change. The plaintiffs, including the Sierra Club and WildEarth Guardians claim the oil and gas leases are a thin veil for the extraction of helium, which has become an important resource as the world faces a shortage of the element and prices rise. Regulations require lease applicants to agree “not to develop oil and gas wells ‘with the principal purpose of recovering the helium component of natural gas’ without express permission from the Secretary of the Interior,” according to the 38-page complaint. The BLM did not assess the current potential impact at all, but relied on a 1988 impact study and concluded that there were no new environmental concerns that would require the consideration of alternatives, according to the suit. “Instead, the agency relied on a thirty-year-old environmental analysis that did not anticipate oil and gas development, and did not take a hard look at such impacts or the significant new information that has arisen about the local environment, wildlife, new oil and gas technologies, and climate change,” plaintiffs said in the suit. Sandy Bahr, director of the Sierra Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter decried the plan to inject acid and water under high pressure to force out oil, gas and helium in the environmentally-sensitive region.”

[Courthouse News Service, 7/15/19] http://bit.ly/2Lp7JHY

Environmental lawsuit: Stop improving wildlife habitat: “An environmentalist lawsuit aims to shut down a wildlife enhancement project in Idaho’s Caribou-Targhee National Forest because mechanized juniper removal would allegedly disturb sensitive habitat. Wild lands Defense, Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council have filed a complaint accusing the U.S. Forest Service of violating federal law by “categorically excluding” the Rowley Canyon Wildlife Enhancement Project from environmental analysis. The project aims to improve habitat for elk and deer, as well as ruffed and sharp-tailed grouse species by removing up to 85% of juniper trees — which behave like an invasive species — across nearly 1,700 acres in the forest. The agency claims its “resource specialists have reviewed the proposed action and do not anticipate the proposed project to lead to any significant impacts or extraordinary circumstances,” justifying the categorical exclusion from environmental analysis under the National Environmental Policy Act. However, the environmental plaintiffs claim the project will exacerbate “existing livestock impacts” from grazing with such activities as cutting, grinding and burning juniper near roadless areas and those with wilderness characteristics.”

[Capital Press, 7/15/19] http://bit.ly/2Gf0puu

Lex Machina's Environmental Litigation Report Reveals Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Generated More Than Half of All Federal Environmental Litigation Cases Since 2010: “Lex Machina, a LexisNexis company, today released its inaugural Environmental Litigation Report, the first and only report of its kind that illuminates data-driven trends and insights from more than 13,000 U.S. District Court case filings involving a dispute over regulation of the environment under any federal statute, including pollution, the use of natural resources, protection of plant and animal ecosystems, and other ways in which humans interact with nature. The Environmental Litigation report is organized by case type, similar to the way it is organized within Lex Machina's Legal Analytics platform, with data and analytics covering the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, CERCLA (Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act), NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act), and RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act). While the report covers cumulative data from 2009 to 2018, it also focuses on the three-year time period from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2018 to showcase recent litigation trends and data, including case filings, case timing, most active law firms and parties, case resolutions, findings, remedies and damages awarded.”

[Yahoo News, 7/16/19] https://yhoo.it/32tXO9v

Justin McCarthy

Communications Director, NEPA Campaign

The Partnership Project
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The Partnership Project, a registered 501 (c) (3) non-profit, is a collaborative effort of over 20 of the country’s most influential advocacy organizations, including Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, League of Conservation Voters, Earthjustice, and Natural Resources Defense Council.