Environmental

Here is the opinion. The court’s syllabus:

Action challenging the issuance of Clean Water Act permits allowing a farm owner to dredge and fill portions of Enemy Swim Lake in furtherance of the owner’s activities in building a road over an inlet of the lake; a 2010 letter from the Corps was not a final agency action for purposes of the permit and exemptions determinations as the letter did not affect the legal rights of the farm owner, the Tribe or the Corps; Tribe’s recapture claim under 33 U.S.C. Sec. 1344(f)(2) was a nonjusticiable enforcement action; Tribe’s claims arising from the Corps’s permit and exemption determinations made from 1998 to 2003 were barred by the statute of limitations and the Tribe was not eligible for equitable tolling because it had not diligently pursued its rights; dismissal of the Tribe’s arbitrary-and-capricious challenge to the Corps’s 2009 permit decision rejected as the Corps did not violate its own regulations in issuing the 2009 nationwide-permit determination; the district court did not make a final decision with respect to the lawfulness of the Corps’s regulations enacted pursuant to the National Historic Preservation Act, and the court lacked jurisdiction to review the lawfulness of the regulations.

Briefs.

Federal Court Rejects Diné CARE Challenge to Fracking Near Chaco Canyon

April 24, 2018April 24, 2018Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here are the materials in Diné Citizens Against Ruining Our Environment v. Zinke (D.N.M.):

112 dine care opening brief

113 us response

117 reply

132 dct order

Little River Band Ottawa Lake Sturgeon News

April 17, 2018April 17, 2018Matthew L.M. Fletcher

On Thursday 4/12/18, the Little River Band of Odawa Indians Natural Resources Department staff, led by Corey Jerome – Sturgeon Biologist, have recaptured a Lake Sturgeon from Manistee Lake that was raised and released in 2008 from our sturgeon Streamside Rearing Facility at Rainbow Bend on the Manistee River. This is the first released sturgeon that has been documented returning into the Manistee River system from our rearing facility and is thought to be on its way up the Manistee River to spawn this spring. Corey Jerome was able to confirm the identity of this sturgeon by using the unique identification number scanned from the PIT-Tag in the fish, this tag was implanted into this sturgeon before its release in 2008. The sturgeon was released on September 20, 2008 and was 7.3 in., 0.05 lbs. and is now 10 years old and 45.27 in., 28 lbs. To our knowledge this is the first documented lake sturgeon from a Streamside Rearing Facility to return to its natal stream within the Great Lakes. Corey Jerome began in the spring of 2017, and has continued in 2018 to look for adult lake sturgeon returning to the Manistee River from our Streamside Rearing Facility. It is our plan to continue these efforts to look for returning sturgeon in the Manistee River that have been released from our Streamside Rearing Facility to evaluate the success of our efforts. (Pictures Attached; Corey Jerome holding the returning sturgeon; Corey Jerome and Josh Beaulaurier taking ultrasound images to determine the sex of the sturgeon.)

Here:

LRBOI employee Corey Jerome Holding the returning Sturgeon LRBOI Employees Corey Jerome and Josh Beaulaurier taking an ultrasound to determine the sex of the sturgeon

FLOW Comments on Enbridge Line 5

April 17, 2018April 16, 2018Matthew L.M. Fletcher

Here:

Final FLOW letter to MPSC and DEQ

Excerpt:

Dear Chairwoman Talberg and MPSC Commissioners Cadwell, Rittenhouse, Saari, and Eubanks, Director Grether, Mr. Graf, and Mr. Matousek:

It is the consensus view of federal and state agencies, experts, and interested parties, including Enbridge, that a failure of Line 5 along its length, but particularly under the Straits of Mackinac and the St. Clair River, would result in catastrophic economic and environmental harm.

FLOW’s attached comments request a comprehensive evaluation of feasible and prudent alternatives to Line 5 in its entirety, including, but not limited to Line 5 near, in, across or under the public trust bottomlands and/or waters of the Straits of Mackinac, and Line 5 near, in, across, or under the St. Clair River at Marysville, and across the other 245 public trust water crossings in the state. For the reasons described in the letter, the Department of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”), Michigan Public Service Commission (“MPSC”), and State of Michigan have a legally and state constitutionally required duty to conduct such a comprehensive analysis of the feasible and prudent alternatives to Line 5 in its entirety, including both the Straits and St. Clair River.

On behalf of FLOW, our supporters, and the people of Michigan, we ask you to implement this request immediately.