Great Lakes Law

Great Lakes Environmental Law Center sends notice of intent to sue Enbridge over pipeline oil spill

The Great Lakes Environmental Law Center has sent a notice of intent to sue Enbridge, Inc. for violations of the Clean Water Act resulting from the burst pipeline that has spilled approximately one million gallons of oil into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River. The Clean Water Act requires this formal 60-day notice prior to commencing a citizen suit to enforce violations of the law. As detailed in the 60-day notice letter, based on the... Read more →

Enbridge pipeline spills over a million gallons of crude oil into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River

Here are the facts: On Monday July 26, a 30-inch pipeline in Marshall, Michigan belonging to Enbridge Inc. burst. The U.S. EPA estimates over 1 million gallons (over 23,000 barrels) of crude oil spilled into Talmadge Creek, a waterway which feeds into the Kalamazoo River. On July 28, the U.S. EPA assumed the role of Federal On-Scene Coordinator pursuant to the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, which gives EPA responsibility for inland (rather than offshore)... Read more →

Great Lakes Environmental Law Center and NRDC file petition to close loophole on pharmaceutical drugs in drinking water

Pharmaceutical drugs in drinking water are a growing concern for both aquatic and human health. Water samples from the Great Lakes and other waterbodies often reveal potentially harmful levels of many drugs, including antibiotics, steroids and other hormones, cancer therapies, lipid regulators and anti-inflammatory drugs. These drugs may get into our water supply from direct disposal or through human waste, since the body does not fully break down all drugs taken in. Unfortunately, our wastewater... Read more →

The BP Gulf blowout - environmental law and political posturing

I’ll be on FOX Business Network today discussing the likely legal actions in the BP Gulf oil blowout and providing some commentary on the political response from Washington (to view video, cleck here). Earlier this week, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the federal government has launched civil and criminal investigations (see this coverage from the Wall Street Journal with my reaction), but the Attorney General was frustratingly vague on specifics. Here’s my short... Read more →

Federal funding for Great Lakes restoration won’t stop new pollution problems

The Great Lakes restoration campaign - led by conservation groups, industry, and state and local governments to get more federal funding for research, habitat restoration, and toxic clean-ups - is taking some deserved criticism for simply throwing a lot of money at existing problems without providing new solutions. As Dan Egan reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article “Great Lakes aid isn't a cure-all; Despite $475 million restoration plan, damage continues in freshwater system”, some... Read more →

Great Lakes Environmental Law Center and other conservation organizations join with Manitoba and Canada in opposing U.S. water diversion project in court

The Great Lakes Environmental Law Center has filed an amicus curiae (friend of the court) brief in the U.S. District Court for Washington D.C. in Government of the Province of Manitoba v. Ken Salazar, et al. The case involves a challenge by Manitoba, joined by Canada and several conservation organizations, to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s Environmental Impact Statement for the Northwest Area Water Supply (NAWS) Project. The NAWS Project is the first United States... Read more →

Minnesota appeals court upholds the state’s new ballast water permit despite challenge from environmental group

The Minnesota court of appeals has affirmed the state agency’s issuance of a new ballast water permit, despite an environmental group’s challenge that the permit does not do enough to protect Lake Superior from aquatic invasive species. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s ballast water discharge permit allows ships to delay new treatment technologies to prevent biological pollution until 2016, leaving Lake Superior vulnerable to more invasive species for another seven years. The Minnesota Center for... Read more →

Better protections for wetlands in Michigan and the Great Lakes

The National Wildlife Federation’s recent report, Protecting and Restoring the Kidneys of the Great Lakes: An Assessment of Wetlands Programs in Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin, has reinvigorated ongoing efforts to improve wetland protection in Michigan. Michigan is one of two states that has a federally delegated wetland protection program, but for budgetary and political reasons the state is considering dropping its wetland protection program, leaving only the federal government to do the job (and... Read more →

Supreme Court rules that mining waste can be dumped into waterbodies as “fill” under the Clean Water Act

In its second Clean Water Act case of the term, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the mining waste can be dumped into waterbodies as “fill” under the Clean Water Act. The mining company, Coeur Alaska, sought permission to dispose of waste from its Kensington Gold Mine into nearby Lower Slate Lake as “fill” and not “pollution” under the Clean Water Act. Thus, the company claimed that discharge of the mining waste was only... Read more →

United States and Canada commit to update the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton used a special event commemorating the 100 year anniversary of the Boundary Waters Treaty between the United States and Canada to announce that the two countries will begin the process of updating the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement. The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement was initiated pursuant to the Boundary Waters Treaty and first signed in 1972 by President Richard Nixon and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. The 1972 agreement focused... Read more →

Clean Water Restoration Act passes out of Senate committee, big step towards passage

Congress took a big step towards restoring protections for our Nation’s freshwater today when the U.S. Senate’s Environment and Public Works Committee reported out the Clean Water Restoration Act. Jim Murphy, Wetlands and Water Resources Counsel for the National Wildlife Federation, is one of the leaders working on this issue and wrote the following guest post providing all of the details. Jim coordinates NWF’s nationwide litigation and policy advocacy on Clean Water Act and wetlands... Read more →

Federal appeals court upholds EPA rule exempting water transfers from Clean Water Act regulation

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Atlanta, has upheld the Bush EPA’s controversial water transfer rule, which would allow polluted water from a dirty waterbody to be pumped and dumped into a pristine waterbody without a Clean Water Act permit. This is a critically important issue for water quality and invasive species in the Great Lakes and nationally. For background on the issue, and the stakes for our lakes, rivers, and streams, see... Read more →

Great Lakes Senators Key to Future of Clean Water Act

Since the Supreme Court’s infamously muddled and split decision in Rapanos v. United States created uncertainty for protecting non-navigable streams and wetlands under the Clean Water Act, political efforts have been building to restore protections through the legislation called the Clean Water Restoration Act. After several years of legislative and outreach work, 2009 could be the year of success for the Clean Water Restoration Act. I asked my good friend and former colleague Chris Grubb... Read more →