Clean Water Act

 

NWPR & WOTUS

 

Farm Bureau And NCBA Backs Government In Defending NWPR . According to WNAX-Radio, “Environmentalists are challenging in federal court, the Trump administration’s rewrite of the Obama Era WOTUS rule which is the Navigable Waters Protection Rule. Attorneys for the EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers are asking the court to throw that lawsuit out. South Dakota Farm Bureau President Scott VanderWal says his group backs the NWPR and says the government attorneys are making the right move. National Cattlemen’s Beef Association’s Chief Environmental Counsel Scott Yager says the new rule is based on sound science and the environmentalists charge that the WOTUS was based on sound science isn’t true. VanderWal says while the environmentalists are concerned the new NWPR leaves waters unprotected, the new rule actually provides the needed protections. The Government attorneys argue that the environmentalists lack standing in their case and they haven’t been able to show the NWPR causes any harm. Yager says that’s very difficult to prove and they don’t have a very good case anyway. Both the EPA and US Army Corps of Engineers have filed a motion for summary judgement in the case asking the court to maintain the Navigable Waters Protection Rule.” [WNAX-Radio, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

Op-Ed: Trump's Deregulatory Disregard For Law And Science. According to The Hill, “Climate change is also largely ignored in the NWPR, a huge issue for arid environments like much of the American West, where water conservation and protection are even more essential. For example, over 81 percent of streams in the arid and semi-arid Southwest are intermittent or ephemeral, meaning they only flow seasonally or after precipitation events. Many of these important systems will now be excluded from federal protection, including most of the small creeks that flow into the Grand Canyon. Due to intensifying groundwater use and climate effects, the number of newly excluded waters will grow.” [The Hill, 8/31/20 (+)]

 

Op-Ed: Trump's Deregulatory Disregard For Law And Science. According to The Hill, “In a recent peer-reviewed article in Science, we analyzed the claimed rationales, legal infirmities and wide-ranging environmental harms of the Trump administration’s recently implemented Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR). The rule addresses the critically important issue of what ‘waters’ are federally protected under the Clean Water Act. In developing it, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, under Trump, disregarded both law and science. The preceding Obama administration’s protective Clean Water Rule (CWR) was based on close analysis of statutory language, case and regulatory law and on a publicly vetted report compiling the best peer-reviewed science on the functions and services provided by the nation’s waters. Although ‘waters’ jurisdiction is now a divisive political hot potato, the CWR’s goals were consistent with decades of bipartisan efforts to protect the immense value of waters that are safe for drinking, recreation, agriculture and the nation’s ecosystems. It followed the Clean Water Act’s mandate that regulators protect the ‘chemical, physical and biological integrity’ of the nation’s waters. The Trump administration, in contrast, turned a blind eye to the science on how water connects landscapes, from ridges-to-reefs, thereby both performing ecosystem functions and providing ecosystem services, including water quality improvement, flood control and fish and wildlife support. The administration relied heavily on a minority Supreme Court opinion that itself ignored statutory goals and scientific evidence, focusing instead on permanent flows and connections between waterbodies, while downplaying protective criteria endorsed by court majorities.” [The Hill, 8/31/20 (+)]

 

Permits & Certifications

 

Judge Won't Halt Construction On $2B Texas Project. According to E&E News, “A federal court is allowing work on the Permian Highway pipeline to move forward, despite evidence of the environmental risks posed by the 429-mile project. Judge Robert Pitman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas declined on Friday to issue a preliminary injunction to prevent further construction of the natural gas pipeline across 129 water crossings. The Sierra Club had argued that the Army Corps of Engineers had violated the National Environmental Policy Act and should complete a review of the effects of the projects on endangered species and water quality (Energywire, Aug. 3). The judge, an Obama appointee, said the Sierra Club had not been able to show irreparable harm at this point, but he acknowledged that the environmental group’s allegations ‘came close’ and had ‘marshalled a great deal of evidence that demonstrates harm to the environment.’ He pointed to the fact that Permian Highway developer Kinder Morgan Texas Pipeline LLC had caused drilling fluid to leak into nearby drinking water wells after the company drilled into a void in karst, a topography formed by the erosion of soluble rocks like limestone. The developer still plans to use the same horizontal drilling method, the judge added. ‘Unfortunately granting an injunction at this stage of the Pipeline’s completion would not ‘unring the bell,’ and Sierra Club has failed to establish a definitive threat of future harm,’ Pitman wrote in an order from the court.” [E&E News, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

Federal District Court Judge Denies Injunction For Permian Pipeline. According to InsideEPA, “A federal district court judge in Texas has denied Sierra Club’s request for a preliminary injunction blocking the use of a Clean Water Act general permit to construct the Permian Highway Pipeline, saying the group’s alleged harms have either occurred in the past and cannot be remedied by the court or are too speculative to address now. ‘While Sierra Club has not shown irreparable harm at this juncture, the Court acknowledges that Sierra Club’s allegations come close and that Sierra Club has marshaled a great deal of evidence that demonstrates harm to the environment,’ Judge Robert Pitman of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas says in an Aug. 28 order. ‘The Court makes its determination pursuant to a legal framework that discounts much of Sierra Club’s harm allegations to the point that it becomes an almost insurmountable hurdle to obtain injunctive relief, even when Kinder Morgan has admittedly drilled into a void in the karst, leaked drilling fluid and impacted the drinking water wells of nearby residents, and intends to continue to use horizontal directional drilling at water crossings,’ Pitman continues. ‘Unfortunately, granting an injunction at this stage of the Pipeline’s completion would not ‘unring the bell,’ and Sierra Club has failed to establish a definitive threat of future harm.’” [InsideEPA, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

Water Pollution

 

Drinking Water

 

Op-Ed: Time To End Oil And Gas Boondoggle. According to Albuquerque Journal, “A central tenet of traditional conservatism always has been personal responsibility. Russell Kirk, whom President Reagan called ‘the prophet of American conservatism,’ wrote of the correlation between rights and responsibilities: ‘Every right is married to a duty; every freedom owes a corresponding responsibility.’ Sadly, this simple principle is not being applied to oil and gas companies with permits to drill on our public lands. When these companies file for bankruptcy, as they often do these days, the old wells and other infrastructure that they leave behind threaten the surrounding air, water and land long after they are gone. Not only is this a disaster for the environment, but also it is bad for our wallets. By failing to clean up after themselves, these companies shift the responsibility to taxpayers. You and I end up footing the bill to the tune of $20,000 to $145,000 per well, according to the Government Accountability Office. Given today’s large number of ‘orphaned’ wells, these numbers really add up. Family of late UNM football player Flowers to announce civil suit against UNM and NCAA Total reclamation costs for wells operating on public lands could exceed $6.1 billion, although we can’t be entirely sure because the federal government does a poor job of keeping track of them. What we do know is that, if those orphaned wells are not properly reclaimed, they can contaminate local drinking water and release as much air pollution as 1.5 million cars.” [Albuquerque Journal, 8/28/20 (=)]

 

PFAS

 

Legislature’s Action May End Court Hold On New Hampshire PFAS Standards. According to InsideEPA, “New Hampshire’s environment department is asking a state court to lift a ban on enforcing the state’s landmark drinking water and groundwater standards for four per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) following the state legislature’s passage of identical standards in July and their enactment into law. The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services (NHDES) is asking the Merrimack County Superior Court to lift a preliminary injunction it imposed last November blocking enforcement of the state’s rules setting down enforceable drinking water levels, or maximum contaminant levels (MCLs), and groundwater standards for four PFAS. The court took the action, saying the department had failed to conduct an adequate cost-benefit analysis on them. The litigation, The Plymouth Village Water & Sewer District, et al. v. Robert R. Scott, is a potential test case for industry challenges to state water standards on PFAS. The Granite State is one of the first to set strict, enforceable drinking water levels for a suite of PFAS, coming as several other states are also moving to adopt such standards in the absence of federal requirements. All the parties in the litigation -- industry, a water district and biosolids company as well as the state -- filed an interlocutory appeal to the state’s supreme court after the November preliminary injunction, seeking reversals on different aspects of the ruling.” [InsideEPA, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

Coal Ash

 

Earthjustice Vows To Sue EPA Over Power Plant Effluent Limits ‘Rollback’. According to InsideEPA, “Earthjustice is vowing to sue EPA over its final effluent limitations guidelines (ELG) for steam electric power plants, which is largely unchanged from the agency’s proposal and which environmentalists say is a major ‘rollback’ of environmental protections established by the Obama administration. ‘The Trump administration is once again jeopardizing people’s health to give coal power industry lobbyists what they want. This dangerous decision will have a big impact because dirty coal-fired power plants are by far the number one source of toxic chemicals in our water,’ Thom Cmar, deputy managing attorney of the Earthjustice Coal Program, said Aug. 31. ‘The Trump Administration’s rollback will be responsible for hundreds of thousands of pounds of pollutants contaminating sources of drinking water, lakes, rivers and streams every year. We will challenge this rule change in court,’ he added. Other environmental groups also appear to be suggesting they might sue, with Abel Russ, senior attorney for the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP), saying in an Aug. 31 statement that ‘EPA is ignoring the Clean Water Act, ignoring the courts, ignoring science, and ignoring public health.’” [InsideEPA, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

Trump Administration Finalizes Coal Plant Pollution Rollback. According to Associated Press, “But environmentalists and a former EPA officials warned the move will harm public health and result in hundreds of thousands of pounds of pollutants annually contaminating water bodies. The new rule largely exempts coal plants that will retire or switch to burning natural gas by 2028. Coal plants are responsible for as much as 30% of all toxic water pollution from all industries in the U.S. In the Southeast, that number is even higher. ‘This rule is going to continue to let these coal-fired power plants pour these toxics into the nation’s rivers and streams, contaminating drinking water and fisheries for 2.7 million people,’ said Betsy Southerland, who was the science director in the EPA’s water office before retiring in 2017. The estimate of people impacted is from the analysis that was done for the Obama-era rule, she said. The revised rule is expected to affect 75 out of 914 coal power plants nationwide, compared to more than 100 plants affected by the 2015 rule. That’s in part because coal power usage has dropped dramatically over the past decade and many plants have been shuttered. The rules also carve out an exception for a plant operated by the nation’s largest public utility, the Tennessee Valley Authority. The plant in Cumberland City, Tennessee, near the Kentucky border, accounts for up to one-sixth of the wastewater released in the country from cleaning out coal plant flues, millions of gallons per day more than any other plant.” [Associated Press, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

Trump Admin Loosens Limits On Coal Plant Pollution. According to E&E News, “EPA is relaxing Obama-era regulations for wastewater coming from coal-fired power plants, discharges that can contain high levels of toxic chemicals like mercury, arsenic, nitrogen and selenium. The agency issued a final rule today, rolling back 2015 standards that represented the first time in more than 30 years the federal government had acted to curb the toxics and other pollutants that power plants release into nearby waterways. The final rule, known as the Effluent Limitations Guidelines (ELGs), is similar to one proposed last fall but would further extend the timeline for plants to comply. And coal facilities closing, repowering or switching to natural gas by 2028 are exempt. A senior EPA administration official on call today touted the rule as another example of President Trump’s dedication to ‘American energy independence’ and said the final changes will save $140 million annually while reducing 1 million pounds of pollution per year over the 2015 rule, despite relaxation of the timelines for compliance. The official said the earliest a plant will need to comply is one year from the rule’s publication in the Federal Register, and 2025 for best available technology. The official said EPA’s revisions unveiled today will apply to wastewater generated at coal-fired power plants when sulfur dioxide is removed from the facilities’ emissions, as well as water used to flush the bottom ash out of plants and into coal ash pits.” [E&E News, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

Trump Administration Rolls Back Obama-Era Rule Aimed At Limiting Toxic Wastewater From Coal Plants. According to The Washington Post, “The Trump administration on Monday weakened a 2015 regulation that would have forced coal plants to treat wastewater with more modern, effective methods in order to curb toxic metals such as arsenic and mercury from contaminating lakes, rivers and streams near their facilities. In a statement, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler said that the final rule’s ‘flexible, phased-in’ approach would make it easier for the coal industry to comply while also protecting the environment. Three years ago the Trump administration delayed the Obama-era rule — which the EPA had estimated would keep 1.4 billion pounds of pollutants out of U.S. waterways each year — before replacing it with a scaled-back version. ‘Newer, more affordable pollution control technologies and flexibility on the regulation’s phase-in will reduce pollution and save jobs at the same time,’ Wheeler said. Power plants represent the largest industrial source of toxic wastewater pollution around the country. A senior EPA official on Monday said the updated rule would save the coal industry $140 million each year, and the agency estimated that the change would still reduce pollution by 1 million pounds annually compared to the 2015 rule because many plants would voluntarily adopt stricter controls than what the agency requires.” [The Washington Post, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

E.P.A. Relaxes Rules Limiting Toxic Waste From Coal Plants. According to The New York Times, “The Trump administration on Monday relaxed strict Obama-era standards for how coal-fired power plants dispose of wastewater laced with dangerous pollutants like lead, selenium and arsenic, a move environmental groups said would leave rivers and streams vulnerable to toxic contamination. The Environmental Protection Agency regulation scaled back the types of wastewater treatment technologies that utilities must install to protect rivers and other waterways. It also pushed back compliance dates and exempted some power plants from taking any action at all. The change is one of several the Trump administration has pushed to try to rescue a coal industry in steep decline, extending the life of aging coal-fired power plants and trying to make them more competitive with cheaper natural gas and renewable energy. The move came days after President Trump’s son Eric described his father as a champion of coal miners who ‘will fight for you.’ Coal industry executives, who had criticized the original restrictions as costly and overly burdensome, praised the changes. Andrew Wheeler, the E.P.A. administrator and a former coal industry lobbyist, described the revisions as ‘more affordable pollution control technologies’ that would ‘reduce pollution and save jobs at the same time.’” [The New York Times, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

EPA Eases Coal-Ash And Wastewater Disposal Rules. According to The Wall Street Journal, “The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Monday completed a set of new guidelines for disposing of coal ash and wastewater from coal-fired power plants, changes that critics say could allow more pollutants into the nation’s waterways. The rules, which ease stricter guidelines set by the Obama administration in 2015, apply to coal ash, a common byproduct of burning coal for power that can contain lead, arsenic, mercury and other toxic pollutants. Some of it is used to make cement and other products, but much of it gets dumped into ponds and landfills from which it can leach into groundwater. The guidelines establish new compliance dates, as well as changes in wastewater-treatment rules. A senior EPA official said the new rules will save the U.S. power sector roughly $140 million a year by reducing compliance costs and other measures. The revisions have been in the works since 2017 and mark the latest push in the Trump administration’s deregulatory agenda at the request of the U.S. energy sector. Power utilities had asked for the relief, with one trade group estimating that the 2015 rules would have led to the closings of dozens of coal-ash dumps at a cost of $23 billion to $35 billion over 20 years. ‘Newer, more affordable pollution control technologies and flexibility on the regulation’s phase-in will reduce pollution and save jobs at the same time,’ EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a written statement.” [The Wall Street Journal, 9/1/20 (=)]

 

EPA Unveils Final Coal Discharge Rule. According to Politico, “The Trump administration on Monday unveiled its latest effort to help the ailing coal sector, issuing its final rollback of an Obama-era rule that sought to protect drinking water supplies from toxic discharges from coal-fired power plants. The rule: The final rule is substantially similar to the standards EPA proposed in November 2019 in altering the technologies required for treating two waste streams and offering power plants more time to install the new systems. One of the minor changes made to the final rule is to expand a proposed exemption from the new rules for power plants that are slated to retire soon to also cover plants that will be switching their fuel source. The Trump administration also changed its proposal to limit wastewater purges to 10 percent of their water on a 30-day rolling average, instead allowing local permitting authorities to set the discharge cap on a case-by-case basis in the final version. ‘EPA’s revised steam electric effluent guidelines shows President Trump’s commitment to advancing American energy independence and protecting the environment,’ EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement. ‘Newer, more affordable pollution control technologies and flexibility on the regulation’s phase-in will reduce pollution and save jobs at the same time.’” [Politico, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

EPA Poised To Finalize Coal Ash Discharge Rollback. According to Politico, “In the proposed version, the Trump administration called for removing the mandate that utilities continually recycle their wastewater and instead allow them to discharge 10 percent of their water on a 30-day rolling average. However, the agency predicted that approximately 30 percent of plants will still adopt the more stringent technology, thanks to a ‘voluntary incentives program.’ The proposed rule would also offer utilities an extra two years to upgrade the waste treatment systems for scrubber sludge and exempt from those requirements the plants that said they would soon be retiring or operating for a limited number of hours per year. EPA justified the proposal by saying the cost of the Obama-era standards was greater than previously estimated and that the proposed changes would save the industry $175 million each year in compliance costs. Drinking water: Drinking water utilities have raised alarm about the rollback of the zero discharge provision, which would effectively loosen controls for discharges of bromide. The chemical compound is naturally occurring in coal and is at times added to it, but interacts with utilities’ disinfection chemicals to produce a carcinogen. Bromide is very expensive for utilities to remove at treatment plants. In a presentation to the White House interagency review team earlier this month, the American Water Works Association said the issue ‘poses a significant public health concern.’ Context: The rollback of effluent limitation guidelines represents the latest in a series of regulatory rollbacks aimed at helping aging coal plants remain operational at a time when the industry faces not just environmental concerns but also competition from cheap natural gas and renewables. The Trump administration has targeted Obama-era rules governing coal ash ponds and air emissions.” [Politico, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

Toxic Algae

 

Lake Okeechobee Algal Bloom Not Connected To Cape Coral Bloom. According to WBBH-TV, “Mike Eads said he retired to Cape Coral for the waterfront lifestyle, but for the last few weeks that water has been keeping him inside. ‘It is bothering my wife drastically, it’s caused me some digestive problems and even my dog got sick,’ Eads said. He said the water turned green about a month ago, but things have improved since city workers came out to address the problems. ‘If you see the turtle when it first went toxic you couldn’t see anything but his head, now you can actually see him in the water four, five, six inches,’ Eads said. Advertisement The city said they’ve deployed deep turbidity curtains to contain the bloom and are trying to see if booms will absorb the toxins. They’re also waiting for test results from air algae toxin samplers from a partnership with Florida Gulf Coast University. ‘I think the city is probably doing everything they can because I’m not sure they completely understand the problem,’ Eads said.” [WBBH-TV, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

Cape Coral Uses Company’s Technology To Help Mitigate Toxic Algae Blooms. According to WINK-TV, “A company could have the answer to help clean up blue green algae. It’s being used in canals where the health department warned people living nearby about the toxic water. AquaFlex developed foam technology to manage algal blooms in the waterways. The City of Cape Coral hopes it can benefit the city in canals that are seeing toxic algal blooms. A Cape Coral spokesperson told us the city is working to clean up the gunk. She showed us blooms and Aquaflex foam that was installed recently to help absorb the algae. ‘It attracts pollutants and toxins like a magnet and repels clear water,’ said Scott Smith, the CEO of Aquaflex. ‘There are no miracle solutions in it at all, but this is a small part, and it takes a team. The reported mossy, green, chunky water is keeping neighbors such as Christina McHenry inside her Cape Coral home. ‘It’s terrible; you can’t even open the windows,’ McHenry said. ‘We used to come out and hang out on the dock. I don’t want to be out here with that.’ The Highlander, Makai and Boris canals are currently waterways in the city with warnings from the Florida Department of Health in Lee County. Toxic blue-green algae is lurking in the waterways. ‘Am I breathing all this stuff in? I don’t know,’ neighbor Alice Catris. ‘I hope not.’” [WINK-TV, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

Blasting Begins For Palm Beach County Reservoir To Keep Toxic Algae At Bay. According to Palm Beach Post, “Rich Glades’ soil and hardened limestone exploded in a series of detonations last week that signaled another milestone in building a new reservoir in western Palm Beach County to hold Lake Okeechobee overflow. The $1.6 billion project, which includes a 6,500-acre stormwater treatment area and 10,500-acre basin, is an effort to alleviate the toxic blue-green algae blooms that plague the St. Lucie and Caloosahatchee estuaries when a bloated Lake O must be drained. Gov. Ron DeSantis made the reservoir a priority during the first few days of his tenure in January 2019 with an executive order requiring the South Florida Water Management District to immediately start the next phase of the massive venture. It’s a project that also led to the forced departures of most of the district’s nine-member board after DeSantis asked for their resignations after a controversial lease was given to sugar farmers Florida Crystals on land that was slated for the reservoir. About 4,000 pounds of explosives were used on Friday to begin blasting canals that will feed water from Lake Okeechobee to the stormwater treatment area that cleanses it of nutrients before it is fed south to the Everglades and Florida Bay. ‘The South Florida Water Management District is obviously in overdrive trying to move forward with our side of the project,’ said Jacqui Thurlow-Lippisch, who was appointed to the district’s board by DeSantis in February 2019. ‘It’s clear that the district is really trying to break down barriers whether it’s getting permits or starting the blasting.’” [Palm Beach Post, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

Photos: Harmful Algae Blooms Now At 16 Wyoming Lakes And Reservoirs; New Warning Issued. According to Oil City News, “A new harmful algae bloom advisory was issued in Wyoming on Monday, Aug. 31 for Weston Reservoir in the northern part of the state. The presence of harmful algae blooms has now been confirmed at a total of 16 Wyoming bodies of water this summer. Three additional lakes or ponds are under investigation, according to the Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality.” [Oil City News, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

Plastic Pollution

 

Pollution Scientist Calls Plastic Pellet Spill In The Mississippi River 'A Nurdle Apocalypse'. According to DeSmog, “Three weeks after a shipping container full of tiny plastic pellets fell into the Mississippi River near New Orleans, cleanup hired by the vessel that lost its cargo stopped shortly after it started as a pair of major storms approached the Gulf Coast. But huge numbers of the pellets, which were made by Dow Chemical and are melted down to manufacture plastic products, still line the river banks in New Orleans and further afield. After visiting a couple locations along the river banks affected by the spill, Mark Benfield, an oceanographer and plastic pollution expert at Louisiana State University, estimated that nearly 750 million of these lentil-sized plastic pellets, also known as nurdles, could have been lost in the river. He described the mess as ‘a nurdle apocalypse.’ The nurdle spill occurred after an incident at the Ports America facility in New Orleans in which four shipping containers were knocked off the container ship CMA CGM Bianca on August 2. Three containers were retrieved, but the fourth, containing 55-pound bags of Dow Chemical polyethylene, fell into the river. It is unclear how many, if any, of the bags of nurdles were recovered.” [DeSmog, 8/28/20 (+)]

 

Plastics Recycling Measure Dies On California Legislature's Final Night. According to Politico, “A set of bills to reduce single-use packaging and plastic waste by increasing recycling requirements ran up against legislative deadlines Monday night and failed to advance for the second year in a row. What happened: Lawmakers ran out of time to pass CA SB54 (19R) by Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica) and CA AB1080 (19R) by Assemblymember Lorena Gonzalez (D-San Diego), which would have required all plastic packaging and ‘priority’ single-use products distributed or sold in California to be recyclable or compostable by a certain date. The identical bills also set a date by which 75 percent of those products would have had to have actually been recycled or composted. Only one of the bills would have needed to pass, but neither made it through the full process to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. The Senate approved AB 1080 23-12 on Sunday, but never transmitted it back to the Assembly for a concurrence vote, the Assembly clerk confirmed Monday night. SB 54 garnered 37 votes in its first airing in the Assembly on Monday evening, but never came back up to collect a majority. The impact: The California Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act would have given the state’s recycling targets more teeth by banning the sale of plastic packaging and single-use products if they didn’t meet their recycling targets.” [Politico, 9/1/20 (=)]

 

Western Water

 

Farmers: Calif. Drainage Project Violates Constitution. According to E&E News, “Major California farmers last week revived a long-standing lawsuit challenging a politically tenuous federal irrigation drainage plan that has never been fully implemented. Farmers from the Westlands Water District allege that the Bureau of Reclamation’s failure to build a drainage system amounts to an unconstitutional taking without just compensation. Reclamation ‘has deliberately and knowingly reneged on its obligation and has made clear it will not satisfy it,’ Michael Etchegoinberry and other farmers said in a court filing Friday. The case at the U.S. Court of Federal Claims concerns a decadeslong dispute between Wetlands and Reclamation. The Rhode Island-sized agricultural powerhouse of the San Joaquin Valley gets its irrigation water from the federal Central Valley Project, a complex system of dams, reservoirs, canals and pipelines that shuttles water from California’s wet north to the more arid south. Underneath the district’s crop fields is a dense clay layer that prevents that water from draining. Eventually it ruins soils as contaminants like selenium accumulate. That limits the farmers’ ability to produce as much as they could otherwise, they say. The farmers are making complicated constitutional arguments. By not building the drainage, they say, Reclamation has limited or ‘taken’ the value of their personal property without just compensation under the Fifth Amendment. Currently, the farmers said, the lack of drainage is affecting 400,000 acres of cropland.” [E&E News, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

Flooding

 

Indiana City Turns Flood-Prone Properties Into A Riverside Trail System. According to Yale Climate Connections, “Two rivers run through Elkhart, Indiana, and in 2018, heavy storms caused record-breaking floods. ‘The damage was extensive. We had FEMA come in, of course,’ says Jamison Czarnecki, director of the Elkhart Environmental Center. ‘I think that was kind of the wake-up call for a lot of the people in the city and the administration itself, saying we need to prevent this from happening again in the future.’ Czarnecki says to hold more water during heavy rain, the city has been updating its combined sewer and stormwater system. And it has continued an effort that began in the ‘90s: buying out property owners who live in the floodplain. ‘We have a trail called the River Greenway,’ Czarnecki says. ‘And it’s a 120-acre greenway system that we purchased a lot of the homes from, and then removed those homes, and then turned it back into a riparian zone to prevent some of that flooding.’ He says residents can also help by keeping stormwater grates clear and planting trees and rain gardens that absorb rain. ‘We do a variety of programming throughout the year with rain barrels, discussing how people can make their lawns more habitat-friendly, more preventative for flooding,’ he says. So as Elkhart experiences more heavy rain, residents can stay safe and dry.” [Yale Climate Connections, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

Report: Climate Risks Compound Financial Challenges For Midwest Nuclear Plants. According to Energy News Network, “Illinois nuclear plants are at high risk of climate stress, a new investment report finds, an issue that could become increasingly important for plants across the Midwest as they seek license renewals and consider infrastructure improvements in coming decades. A report released last week by Moody’s Investor Services found that five of Exelon’s six Illinois plants are at ‘high risk’ and/or more extreme ‘red flag’ risk for both heat and water stress. Exelon’s Quad Cities plant on the Mississippi River, meanwhile, is considered at high risk of flooding. Other Midwestern plants are also considered at high risk for heat and/or water stress, including the Davis-Besse plant in Ohio, NextEra Energy Resources’ Point Beach plant in Wisconsin, NextEra’s Duane Arnold Energy Center in Iowa, Entergy’s Palisades plant in Michigan and Northern States Power Company’s Monticello plant in Minnesota, which is also at high risk of flooding. Nuclear plants need large amounts of water for cooling, so if water becomes too hot or if levels fall too low in the rivers or lakes the plants rely on, or if flooding occurs, the plants may have to temporarily shut down or curtail generation. Opponents of nuclear power note that heat and water stress risks are highest in summer, when the plants are most needed to meet peak demand. All but Davis-Besse are among the 37 U.S. nuclear plants that have licenses expiring before 2035, the report notes.” [Energy News Network, 8/31/20 (=)]

 

Location, Location, Location… And Flood Risk. According to Grist, “It’s a homebuyer’s nightmare: closing on the house of your dreams, only to have it destroyed by a catastrophic flood. That’s a real risk for millions of Americans, thanks to a patchwork of state and local policies — which often don’t require sellers to disclose a property’s flood risks. That’s why it’s a big deal that last week, Realtor.com became the first major real estate website to publish flood risk scores sourced from both federal and nonprofit-sourced flooding data. While the Federal Emergency Management Agency does offer public data about zones that are historically likely to flood (and it requires homebuyers to purchase flood insurance in some of those areas), the agency’s flood maps have been criticized for their failure to account for sea level rise and extreme rain. Realtor.com supplemented FEMA flood data with information from the First Street Foundation, a nonprofit research foundation, which found that 14.6 million U.S. properties are at risk of flooding just this year — a number is 70 percent higher than FEMA’s estimates. Realtor.com told NPR News that the company made the decision to stay competitive, though other real estate websites have yet to follow suit. ‘It’s really important for consumers to know this,’ said Leslie Jordan, senior vice president of product at Realtor.com. ‘They can add a sump pump into the basement. They can install a rain garden outside.’” [Grist, 8/31/20 (+)]

 

Misc. Waterways

 

Speakers Tout NM’s Climate Leadership, But Are Quiet On Oil And Gas Production. According to New Mexico Political Report, “Adella Begay, a retired health professional and board president of Diné Citizens Against Ruining our Environment (Diné CARE), stressed the disproportionate impacts of oil and gas pollution in the state on indigenous populations, children and poor rural communities. ‘More than half of all Native Americans in San Juan County live within a mile of an oil well site,’ she said. She cited health impacts of long-term and short-terms exposure to emissions and pollution, and other impacts from the oil and gas industry, including increased truck traffic, increased noise pollution and loss of grazing areas. Begay said the climate crisis poses unique challenges to the Navajo people. ‘More climate change means less water and more heat waves. Increased temperatures have significantly altered the water cycle in New Mexico,’ she said. Those developments are especially dangerous to the Navajo people, she said, where 30 percent of residents do not have municipal water supplies, and 40 percent of residents do not have electricity and cannot cool their homes in the summer. ‘Climate change is a public health emergency,’ Begay said. ‘A strong methane rule is critical for climate and environmental justice for the Navajo Nation and for all New Mexicans.’” [New Mexico Political Report, 8/29/20 (+)]

 

 

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