While a number of court decisions have considered how CEQA lead agencies should assess the significance of a project’s greenhouse gas emissions, few have examined mitigation measures for those impacts. In Golden Door Properties, LLC v. County of San Diego, 50 Cal. App. 5th 467 (2020), the Fourth District Court of Appeal issued the
Environmental Regulation
Supreme Court Limits Tort Claims By Homeowners at Superfund Sites
The U.S. Supreme Court has issued a wide-ranging decision regarding the rights of homeowners affected by Superfund response actions, ruling that they are bound by CERCLA’s ban on additional remedial actions beyond those authorized by the EPA. The case, Atlantic Research Company v. Christian et al., 590 U.S. ___ (April 20, 2020), concerned historical releases…
Environmental Compliance and COVID-19
The coronavirus (COVID-19) is placing businesses in situations where facilities have to be shut down, staff are sent home, laboratories that test monthly samples are temporarily closed, and contractors who normally conduct sampling or testing are not available. These circumstances create challenges for environmental regulatory/permit compliance. An update highlighting various ways that COVID-19 can adversely…
Supreme Court To Decide If CEQA Review Is Required For Well Permits.
The Supreme Court of California has granted review of two cases to resolve a split among courts of appeal over whether the issuance of well permits pursuant to state standards is subject to CEQA. California Water Impact Network v. County of San Luis Obispo and Protecting Our Water & Environmental Resources v. Stanislaus County.
At the forefront of these cases is whether the standards issued by the Department of Water Resources for well construction give local agencies any discretion when issuing well permits. Water is a critical resource in the state and with enactment of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014, groundwater, particularly its sustainable withdrawal and quality, are issues receiving more attention. Consequently, the practice of ministerial approval of well construction permits by local agencies without discretionary environmental review have come under increasing scrutiny.
In both California Water Impact Network and Protecting Our Water & Environmental Resources, plaintiffs alleged that the counties’ practice of treating approval of well construction permits as a ministerial action results in hundreds of permits being issued each year without CEQA review. The plaintiffs assert that this practice, and the counties’ respective ordinances, violate CEQA because the state standards are not entirely objective, rather, they give the counties discretion to consider local environmental factors when issuing a permit. It is against this backdrop that the Court will consider both cases. The Court’s decision will likely affect how well construction permits are reviewed and issued by local agencies throughout the state.
Water Code Section 13801 requires local agencies to adopt the minimum standards established by DWR for well construction. These standards, in DWR Bulletins No. 74-81 and 74-90, provide guidance on well construction, location, surface features, seals, casing materials and so forth with the goal of preventing groundwater contamination and pollution. Stanislaus County’s well ordinance incorporates both DWR Bulletins, while San Luis Obispo County’s ordinance only incorporates DWR Bulletin 74-81, though in practice, the county also applies the standards in DWR Bulletin 74-90.
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Significant Changes Proposed to NEPA Regulations
The Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking regarding potential changes to the CEQ regulations under the National Environmental Policy Act. The proposed revisions to the CEQ regulations could potentially have far-reaching effects because NEPA requirements are largely defined in the regulations themselves, which have remained essentially unchanged for nearly …
EPA Delays Applicability of Clean Water Rule While Challenges to Rule Proceed in District Courts
As reported in our prior Update, in a decision issued on January 22, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in National Association of Manufacturers v. Department of Defense, 138 S. Ct. 617, that challenges to the Obama administration’s 2015 Clean Water Rule must be brought in federal district courts, rather than directly in the federal courts of appeals. The Court’s decision will likely prolong the ongoing litigation over the validity of the Rule.
Shortly after the Court’s decision, the Trump administration delayed the Rule’s applicability date for two years while it works on rulemakings to rescind and replace the Rule.
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Clean Water Act Permit May Be Required for Pollution Discharged Indirectly into Navigable Waters
A Clean Water Act permit is required for discharging wastewater from injection wells into groundwater where wastewater is “fairly traceable” to navigable waters, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held in Hawai’i Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, 881 F.3d 754 (9th Cir. 2018).
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Clean Water Act Requires Permit for Pollution Discharges from Oyster Hatchery’s Pipes
The Clean Water Act requires a permit to discharge pollutants through pipes, ditches, and channels from an oyster hatchery, even though the facility would not be subject to the Act’s permitting requirements as a “concentrated aquatic animal production facility,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held in Olympic Forest Coalition v. Coast Seafoods Co., 884 F.3d 901 (9th Cir. 2018).
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Certified Regulatory Programs Must Comply with CEQA’s Policies and Substantive Standards
A certified regulatory program, which is exempt from some of CEQA’s requirements, must still comply with CEQA’s core policies and standards, which include considering feasible alternatives and cumulative impacts and recirculating environmental review documents in certain circumstances, the court of appeal held in Pesticide Action Network North America v. California Department of Pesticide Regulation,…
Ninth Circuit Court Paves the Way for Regulation of Stormwater Discharges Under RCRA
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that the anti-duplication provisions of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) do not apply in the absence of a stormwater discharge permit issued under the Clean Water Act. Therefore, unregulated stormwater discharges are potentially subject to RCRA citizen suits and specifically imminent and substantial endangerment suits…