Great Lakes Law

Federal court rejects National Wildlife Federation’s challenge to EPA Vessel General Permit regulating ballast water discharges

In 2012, the US EPA proposed a Vessel General Permit to regulate ballast water discharges pursuant to the Clean Water Act. Ballast water from other regions is a significant source of invasive species in the Great Lakes. Numerous environmental organizations commented on the permit proposal, generally criticizing it for using too weak a standard, exempting a large category of vessels, and not requiring compliance for several years (see this prior post). After the EPA finalized... Read more →

New book announcement - Modern Water Law: Private Property, Public Rights, and Environmental Protections

My new book, Modern Water Law: Private Property, Public Rights, and Environmental Protections, has been published by Foundation Press and is available on Amazon. I was honored to work with two superb co-authors on this book - Robert Adler, Interim Dean and James I. Farr Chair in Law, and Robin Kundis Craig, William H. Leary Professor of Law, both at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law. Modern Water Law: Private Property, Public... Read more →

Deferring to EPA’s interpretation of its own rules, Supreme Court holds that logging road runoff pollution is exempt from Clean Water Act regulation

In Decker v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center, the Supreme Court ruled 7-1 (Justice Breyer did not participate) that EPA’s interpretation of its own rules exempting channelized logging road runoff pollution from Clean Water Act regulation was reasonable. While the opinion authored by Justice Kennedy is a setback for environmental advocates concerned with runoff pollution from timber harvesting, there are some silver linings. First, the Court cleared away a potential hurdle for citizen enforcement of the... Read more →

Supreme Court strikes down EPA’s ban on “pre-enforcement review” under the Clean Water Act

In a unanimous opinion released last week, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the EPA’s ban on “pre-enforcement review” under the Clean Water Act. The decision in Sackett v. EPA, authored by Justice Scalia, holds that the EPA’s administrative compliance orders are “final” for purposes of judicial review under the Administrative Procedure Act and that nothing in the Clean Water Act bars a party from filing suit to challenge the order before EPA initiates a judicial... Read more →

EPA ballast water proposal fails to protect the Great Lakes from invasive species – guest post by Nick Schroeck

The US EPA has proposed a Vessel General Permit to address ballast water discharges, a significant source of invasive species in the Great Lakes. The Great Lakes Environmental Law Center and other conservation organizations filed formal comments last week criticizing the EPA’s proposal as inadequate to prevent the introduction and spread of invasive species in the region. Executive Director Nick Schroeck provides some insight on the issue in this guest post (with special thanks to... Read more →

Michigan Supreme Court will decide if townships are responsible for building sewer systems to control water pollution

The following guest post is by Nick Schroeck, Executive Director of the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center and director of Wayne Law’s Transnational Environmental Law Clinic. On Wednesday November 9, 2011 the Michigan Supreme Court will hear oral argument in the case Michigan Department of Environmental Quality v. Township of Worth (S. Ct. Docket No. 141810). Worth Township is located in a picturesque region of Michigan on the shore of Lake Huron. A popular vacation... Read more →

Great Lakes Week in Detroit – IJC Biennial Meeting and more

The International Joint Commission’s Great Lakes Water Quality Biennial Meeting on October 12-14 is anchoring Great Lakes Week Detroit 2011. The Great Lakes Commission and the Healing Our Waters Coalition will also be holding their annual meetings as part of the event, which should draw hundreds of Great Lakes advocates and policy makers to Detroit and the Wayne State University campus. Pursuant to the Canada-US Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement, the IJC convenes the Biennial... Read more →

Book review - Burning Rivers: Revival of Four Urban-Industrial Rivers that Caught on Fire, by Dr. John Hartig

Remember when rivers catching fire symbolized environmental degradation? I don’t - I was born in 1974, and my generation saw environmental values debated through Styrofoam cups and the spotted owl (rather lame symbols in comparison to a burning river). But the stories of rivers burning became a legendary chapter in the making of environmental law and the growth of political environmentalism. Yet I never understood the complexity of the problem, and the tremendous success in... Read more →

Alternative Strategies for managing pharmaceutical and personal care products in water resources – Guest Post by Gabriel Eckstein

The following guest post is by Gabriel Eckstein, a professor of law at Texas Wesleyan University. Prof. Eckstein is also the Director of the International Water Law Project and a Senior Fellow with the Texas Tech Center for Water Law & Policy. He and George William Sherk recently published an EPA-funded study entitled “Alternative Strategies for Managing Pharmaceutical and Personal Care Products in Water Resources.” The study is available on the Micropollutants Clearinghouse website, a... Read more →

International Joint Commission releases Report on Great Lakes Water Quality, announces next Great Lakes Biennial Meeting at Wayne State University

At a public event yesterday at Wayne State University, the International Joint Commission released its 15th Biennial Report on Great Lakes Water Quality. In its report, the IJC detailed 32 recommendations for action at the federal, state, provincial and local levels of government. (The full report and executive summary are available online.) Most notably, the recommendations focus on the need for the U.S. and Canada to approve a revised Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement to... Read more →

Enforcing the federal Clean Water Act in state proceedings – guest post by Melissa Scanlan

The following guest post is by Melissa Scanlan, one of the leading public interest environmental attorneys in the Midwest. After graduating from the University of California-Berkeley in 1999, Melissa returned to her native Wisconsin and founded Midwest Environmental Advocates, which she led as Executive Director for almost a decade. In June of this year Melissa started a new environmental consulting firm where she is teaching, writing, and promoting social enterprises engaged in water policy, sustainability,... Read more →

Wisconsin develops innovative rules to control phosphorous pollution

The state of Wisconsin, with significant contributions by stakeholders, has developed a package of innovate new rules to control phosphorous pollution from point and nonpoint (runoff) sources. Attorney Bill Davis of the Environmental Law and Policy Center played a key role in developing and advancing these rules through the administrative process. Bill is ELPC’s Clean Water Program Manager, working out of their Madison, Wisconsin office. I’ve known Bill for over ten years, as he previously... Read more →

Scenes from the Enbridge Kalamazoo River oil spill clean up

I just got back from visiting the oil spill site in Marshall, Michigan. Even after several hard rains, the Kalamazoo River’s banks are still covered in oil, and the smell hangs in the air. I’m not much of a photographer, and I’m sorry that the pictures I took don’t really show the full extent of the disaster, but take a look: http://www.greatlakeslaw.org/photos/enbridge_spill_8_4_2010/. As I was photographing the condition of the Kalamazoo River, I met a... Read more →