Ninth Circuit Rejects Challenges to Coquille Timber Harvesting Plan

Here are the materials in Cascadia Wildlands v. Bureau of Indian Affairs:

CA9 Opinion

Cascadia Wildlands Opening Brief

BIA Answer Brief

Coquille Brief

Cascadia Wildlands Reply

 

Ojibwe Gearing Up for Treaty Hunting and Gathering Case

The potential case concerns wild rice gathering and hunting off reservation and will likely include a habitat protection component. The Minnesota Public Radio article is here.

Pro Se Effort to Stop Michigan DNR Land Transfer to Mining Company Dismissed

There are numerous pleadings here but here are the most relevant — the case is captioned Bellfy v. Creagh (W.D. Mich.):

12 DCT Order on 2d TRO Request

18 Michigan Motion to Dismiss

22 Response

27 Reply

35 GTB Brief

52 DCT Order

Prior post on this case here.

Federal Court Rejects Challenge to Fracking Permits at Navajo

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

16-1 Motion for PI

38-1 American Petroleum Institute Opposition

41 WPX Energy Oppoisition

42 US Opposition

52 Reply

63 DCT Order

Navajo President Plans Lawsuit Over Mine Blowout

Begaye: Warnings there, but no one did anything
From the Durango Herald here

NYTs Profile of Benefits of Lower Elwha Dam Removal

Here is “When Dams Come Down, Salmon and Sand Can Prosper.”

Mine Spill Causes Navajo to Declare Emergency & Shut Down Some Water Systems

Navajo as well as New Mexico and Arizona have been affected by this mine spill. More here.

EPA Announces Proposed Interpretive Rule for Tribal Treatment as State (TAS) status under the Clean Water Act

The proposed rule would streamline the TAS process for many tribes seeking eligibility to administer water quality standards and other Clean Water Act programs.

See the Federal Register announcement here.  The deadline for comments is October 6, 2015.

From the announcement:

The effect of this proposal would be to relieve tribes of the need to demonstrate their inherent authority when they apply for TAS to administer CWA regulatory programs. In particular, this proposal would eliminate any need to demonstrate that the applicant tribe retains inherent authority to regulate the conduct of nonmembers of the tribe on fee lands under the test established by the Supreme Court in Montana. Instead, applicant tribes would be able to rely on the congressional delegation of authority in section 518 as the source of their authority to regulate their entire reservations under the CWA, without distinguishing among various categories of on-reservation land. As EPA explained in connection with the CAA, such a territorial approach that treats Indian reservations uniformly promotes rational, sound management of environmental resources that might be subjected to mobile pollutants that disperse over wide areas without regard to land ownership. See 59 FR at 43959. As specifically recognized by the district court in Montana v. EPA, the same holds true for regulation under the CWA. Montana, 941 F. Supp. at 952.

Pueblo of Santa Ana members measure water quality under the tribe's extensive water-monitoring program, recently certified as autonomous under the Clean Air Act by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/07/22/santa-ana-pueblo-get-epa-certified-administer-clean-water-act-tribal-land-161159
Pueblo of Santa Ana members measure water quality under the tribe’s extensive water-monitoring program, recently certified as autonomous under the Clean Air Act by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Read more at http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2015/07/22/santa-ana-pueblo-get-epa-certified-administer-clean-water-act-tribal-land-161159

Southern Ute Indian Tribe’s Opening Brief in Hydraulic Fracturing Suit

Here is the pleading in Southern Ute Indian Tribe v. Dept. of Interior (D. Colo.):

19 Tribe’s Opening Brief

WaPo: “As salmon vanish in the dry Pacific Northwest, so does Native heritage”

Here.