Great Lakes Law

Testimony for Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Great Lakes compact

The Senate Judiciary Committee is holding a hearing tomorrow (July 30) on Senate Joint Resolution 45, giving Congressional consent and approval to the Great Lakes compact. Senator Russ Feingold (D-WI) will preside over the hearing. I was invited to submit written testimony in advance of the hearing. My testimony strongly supports S.J. Res. 45 and provides: (1) an overview of managing water resources with interstate compacts in the United States; (2) background on the existing... Read more →

President Bush issues statement supporting Great Lakes compact

President Bush has issued a formal statement supporting the Great Lakes compact. While President Bush has a terrible environmental record (Russell Train, President Nixon’s chair of the Council on Environmental Quality and then EPA Administrator, has called President Bush’s environmental record a disgrace; Republican Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain has also criticized President Bush’s environmental record, especially on climate change), his support for the Great Lakes compact is not surprising. Several state leaders in the... Read more →

Resolution and bill to approve Great Lakes compact introduced in Congress

A joint resolution and bill expressing Congressional consent and approval of the Great Lakes compact have been introduced in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI, and co-chair with Sen. George Voinovich (R-OH) of the Great Lakes Task Force) introduced S.J. Res. 45. Almost every senator from a Great Lakes state is cosponsoring S.J. Res. 45. The joint resolution was referred to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which then promptly scheduled a... Read more →

Federal appeals court rules that Clean Water Act applies to ballast water discharges

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has upheld a 2005 California district court decision that the EPA’s rule exempting ballast water discharges from regulation (the rule is found at 40 C.F.R. 122.3(a)) is not consistent with the Clean Water Act. The Court of Appeals decision (Northwest Environmental Advocates v. US EPA) also upholds the district court’s order directing the EPA to regulate ballast water discharges by September 30, 2008. The decision does... Read more →

Michigan’s Innovative New Water Withdrawal Law

When Michigan approved the Great Lakes compact earlier this month, it also made significant and innovate reforms to its state water withdrawal law. These reforms build on Michigan’s 2006 water withdrawal law that for the first time imposed permits and other regulatory requirements on large water withdrawals in the state. The 2008 amendments, signed into law as Public Acts 179-190, strengthen the Michigan law by expanding the permit system and creating an assessment process to... Read more →

The silver lining in the Supreme Court’s Exxon decision

The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Exxon Shipping v. Baker, significantly reducing the punitive damages for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, was a big victory for the oil company and a terrible blow for the fishermen and people of Alaska. However, there is a silver lining in the decision. While a narrow majority of the Supreme Court slashed Exxon’s liability for punitive damages, the Court unanimously rejected Exxon’s argument that the Clean... Read more →

The Great Lakes compact success story

In celebrating the final passage of the Great Lakes compact by the state legislatures, it’s easy to forget how difficult this process has been and how many times success seemed out of reach. I was involved in the negotiation and drafting of the Great Lakes compact for three years (2003-2005) through the Advisory Committee to the Council of Great Lakes Governors Water Management Working Group, and there were several points during that time when the... Read more →