While the local and national press inundate us with articles about the dire nature of Arizona’s water supplies and questions about why people are even allowed to live in a desert, careful planning by water leaders over decades has created resilient responses to these challenges that are unmatched in the Southwest and perhaps the nation. […]
Arizona’s water supplies have been front page news for months. Both local and national media have reported on increasingly serious shortages on the Colorado River and the inability of the states that rely on the River to reach consensus on how to share those shortages. Other outlets have reported on issues relating to Arizona’s groundwater […]
by Fred Breedlove The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has released its Near-term Colorado River Operations Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, analyzing three paths forward for managing the Colorado River in light of the potentially dire consequences if they fail to act. The Draft SEIS describes three potential choices without making a specific recommendation: (1) do […]
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by Patrick J. Paul On March 14, 2023, EPA announced the first ever national drinking water standard for PFAS via its proposed National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR) for six specific PFAS including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA, commonly known as GenX Chemicals), perfluorohexane sulfonic […]
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by Michael C. Ford The mining industry was on the losing end of two recent Clean Water Act cases. Stone v. High Mountain Mining Company, LLC,[1] was decided September 12, 2022, and involved a citizen suit challenge to a placer mine operating without a Clean Water Act (“CWA”) discharge (“NPDES”) permit. High Mountain’s operations include […]
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by L. William Staudenmaier The Colorado River is a critical water source for more than 40 million people, vast agricultural operations, numerous industries, and a wide variety of ecological resources across the seven states that share its waters: Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. The River is regulated by the United States […]
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by Fred Breedlove Less than two weeks ago, we wrote that the Department of Interior proposed reducing Colorado River deliveries in 2022 by 480,000 acre-feet and that Assistant Secretary Trujillo had asked the Basin States for comments on this proposal. Wasting no time at all, the Basin States responded last week. In a letter dated […]
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by Fred Breedlove In an April 8, 2022 letter to each of the seven Colorado River basin states, the Interior Department asked for comments by April 22 about its plan to reduce releases from Glen Canyon Dam to 7.0 million acre-feet (maf) this year, a reduction of 480,000 acre-feet. In the letter, Assistant Secretary for […]
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by Patrick J. Paul On Wednesday, April 6, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision stayed a Northern District of California Court decision that both remanded and vacated EPA Trump-era rules regarding water quality certification of projects under Clean Water Act Section 401. The California District Court in 2021 in In re Clean Water […]
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by Michael C. Ford “Sackett” may be poised to become a part of the Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdictional lexicon, joining the likes of Rapanos, significant nexus, relatively permanent, and Solid Waste Agency of Cook County, on the tip of every Clean Water Act practitioner’s tongue. In a surprise move, the Supreme Court of the […]
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