ENVIRONMENTAL LEGAL BLOGS

CONTROVERSY CONTINUES OVER ALLEGED ROCKETDYNE PERCHLORATE CONTAMINATION

     The Simi Valley Acorn reports on Friday, October 28, 2005, that the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) Workgroup will meet again on January 11, 2006, 6:30 p.m. Wed., Jan. 11 at the Simi Valley Cultural Arts Center.  The SSFL Workgroup is lead by the federal EPA

     According to the Acorn, this is a meeting originally scheduled to occur earlier but postponed because of a conflict in schedules on the part of California DTSC participants in the Workgroup.  The paper further reports that the delay has frustrated some environmentalists.

     The immediate controversy regarding the Santa Susana Rocketdyne facility, now owned by Boeing, concerns whether or not the facility is responsible for perchlorate contamination being found in Dayton Creek, a creek that runs through West Hills, California (part of the City of Los Angeles and about 1.5 miles to the east of Rocketdyne).  A developer (Centex) is planning a residential development surrounding the creek.  As the Acorn summarizes the controversy:

The origin of perchlorate has caused further disagreement between the two sides.

Centex, Boeing and the DTSC all say there is a lack of evidence connecting the perchlorate found in Dayton Creek to Rocketdyne’s test field.

Residents and environmentalists believe it’s unreasonable to think the perchlorate came from any source other than Rocketdyne.

Fitzpatrick [a spokesman for Centex] said that because of perchlorate’s high solubility, it should be found in soil and water samples taken at points between the test field and the Centex property. Tests of those samples, Fitzpatrick said, found no perchlorate.

Thus, Centex officials don’t believe the perchlorate found in Dayton Creek came from Rocketdyne.

The alternative explanation is that the perchlorate source in Dayton Creek is an area known, ironically enough, as "Happy Valley."  This is where Dayton Creek originates and perchlorate levels in the soil at that site have been found as high as 75,000 parts per million (that's high).  The paper reports:

Ali Tabidian, professor of hydrogeology at Cal State Northridge for more than 16 years, said he thinks that because of the faster water current typically found higher on a hill, it’s reasonable to assume the perchlorate was washed further downstream into areas—like Dayton Creek—where the water pools.

In any event, I'll report further when there is coverage of the SSFL Workgroup's scheduled January meeting.

SB 600

   Described in my Post of June 27, 2005 (see BIOMONITORING under CATEGORIES, right-hand side of this page).  The Governor has vetoed the bill.

CAMERON DIAZ-- ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERT

It is comforting to know that our Hollywood stars continue to use their expertise to educate us on protecting the environment.  As if hearing from Barbara Streisand weren't enough (see Post on this Blog of 9/25/05, under the "Global Warming" CATEGORY, right-hand side of this page), we are now fortunate to have Cameron Diaz as a teacher as well.  This, from the AP today:

STANFORD, Calif.

Cameron Diaz surprised a class at Stanford University when the "Charlie's Angels" star helped lead a lecture on environmentally friendly design.

Diaz's appearance Thursday came as part of taping for an mtvU program called "Stand-In" in which celebrities teach a class. On Tuesday, Madonna lectured students at New York's Hunter College.

    Given that I am a lawyer specializing in environmental law, I am waiting for MTV to contact me about teaching a movie-making class.

CALIFORNIA ESTABLISHING SEPTIC TANK STANDARDS

     The State Water Resources Control Board is adopting Statewide standards for the permitting, repair, performance and upgrading of septic tank systems.  These regulations, which will be found in Title 27 of the California Code of Regulations, mark the first Statewide regulation of such systems.

     You can access the proposed regulations here and the Board's web page dealing more generally with the topic of septic systems here.

DTSC WORKSHOPS ON NEW SUPERFUND REGULATIONS

     DTSC has announced the following workshops regarding amendments to the State Superfund regulations:

1.  Extending the Post-closure Care Period

Date:     November 15, 2005
Time:     9:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M.

Location:     Coastal Hearing Room
    Joe Serna Jr. Cal/EPA Headquarters Building
    1001 I Street, 2nd Floor
Sacramento, California 95812

2.  Financial Test and Corporate Guarantee/Captive Insurance
Date:         November 29, 2005 (rescheduled from 10/31/05)
Time:         9:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M.-

Location:     Coastal Hearing Room
        Joe Serna Jr. Cal/EPA Headquarters Building
        1001 I Street, 2nd Floor
        Sacramento, California 95812

     Further FYI, for those who cannot attend in person, the DTSC has in its workshop announcements included the following standard notification:

If you are unable to attend, the workshop may be monitored live via audio webcast.  The broadcast link will be available on the Cal/EPA website at: http://www.calepa.ca.gov/broadcast/.  Questions and comments may be submitted in real time by sending an e-mail to:  [email protected].  DTSC staff will monitor  e-mails and, as time allows, read them aloud.  All questions and comments submitted via e-mail will be considered in DTSC's future actions.

FONTANA WATER COMPANY DENIED DRAMATIC RATE INCREASE

     This Blog has previously reported on clean-up efforts and lawsuits over perchlorate contamination in the Inland Empire area of California (east of Los Angeles).  See Posts of July 9 and 18, 2005, under the category "PERCHLORATE".  The latest round in this saga occurred when, on September 22, 2005, an administrative law judge of the California Public Utilities Commission denied Fontana Water Company a dramatic rate increase (23.6 to 77 per cent, depending on how one interprets press accounts of the administrative proceedings) which the water provider said was needed, among other things, to clean up perchlorate-contaminated drinking water wells.

     Apparently, however, the administrative law judge's ruling is not the final word on the matter. According to the Fontana Herald News of October 6, 2005, the judge ordered a "public participation hearing" to occur on November 17, 2005 for further discussion of the water rate issue.   Commenting on the upcoming hearing, Mayor Mark Nuaimi said:

"We urge residents to attend the community meeting, where they will have the possibility of making their voices heard, so that the judge sees that the increase is just wrong," said Nuaimi. "This is our chance to let the Water Company know we are not going to give up. We will win in court and there will be no rate increase."

    

RAPANOS CASE GOES TO SUPREME COURT

     Again, per Reuters:

The Supreme Court said Tuesday that it would would [sic] decide the reach of the federal government's power to regulate wetlands, an issue pitting environmentalists against property-rights advocates.

The justices agreed to decide a pair of Michigan cases, involving a shopping-center developer and a condominium builder, that will test whether the government's use of the 1972 Clean Water Act represented a permissible exercise of Congress' authority to regulate interstate commerce.

The high court will consider whether federal regulators have gone too far by restricting development of wetlands that are not adjacent to navigable waters such as rivers or lakes.

     One of the cases the Court agreed to hear is that of John Rapanos, previously discussed on this Blog in posts dated March 12, 22 and 25, 2005.  See right-hand side of this page and click on "Wetlands" under "CATEGORIES".

UN: DEFORESTATION DOESN'T TRIGGER FLOODS

Reuters reports:

Deforestation is often wrongly blamed for causing floods, like in Guatemala this month, under a myth that has skewed agricultural policies, an international report said on Thursday.

"There is no scientific evidence linking large-scale flooding to deforestation," the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Indonesia-based Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR) said in a report.

The frequency of major floods in the past 120 years, back to the late 19th century when forests were far more abundant, has been stable worldwide, it said. That implied that deforestation was not a cause of flooding.

It said devastation from Hurricane Stan in central America this month had been widely and wrongly blamed on excessive runoff caused by deforestation. The same was said about recent floods in China, Thailand and Vietnam.

***

And floods are a part of a natural cycle, helping maintain fertility on flood plains. In some parts of the world, crops like rice and jute depend on seasonal flooding.

The report said a surge in the human death toll and mounting economic losses from floods in recent years was largely because more people lived in flood plains.

"As a result, many floods that previously would have been only minor events now become major disasters," the report said.

PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION SETTLEMENT WITH FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE

     Earlier this year, Pacific Legal Foundation sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to force it to review plants and species listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.  PLF contended, apparently correctly, that the Service had not been following the mandate of the ESA to the effect that listed plants/species should be reviewed every 5 years to see if protection were still needed: "The service acknowledged it had neglected the reviews, and it agreed to a schedule for their completion." U.S. to review 194 species on endangered list , San Francisco Chronicle, September 23, 2005.

     PLF commented on the settlement, as follows (quotes below taken from the SF Chronicle article):

"Whenever a species is listed, it has the potential for restrictions that can be very limiting on the property owner, that can delay property use," said Rob Rivett, a principal attorney for the foundation. "It isn't just about homes. Schools are another example."

Rivett noted that the new UC Merced campus is subjected to significant construction restrictions and is required to fund habitat mitigation efforts because of tiny crustaceans called fairy shrimp that inhabit vernal pools in the area.

Rivett said he believed fairy shrimp might be taken off the endangered species list once reviews were completed.

"Contrary to what was once thought, we now know they are spread over a very broad area of land, from Southern California to southern Oregon," he said.

     The Chronicle article suggests that even environmentalists are not unhappy with the outcome.  Kieran Suckling, of the Center for Biological Diversity, commented:

"It was a bit of a crackpot suit, but the settlement isn't bad, and we agreed to it," said Suckling. "Some important data may come out of it, and the service is being given enough time so they won't be forced to rush their work. Unfortunately, it will cost the taxpayers about $1 million -- money that would have been better spent on habitat acquisition and recovery."

     Dear readers, please explain how the above quote makes sense.  "It was a bit of a crackpot lawsuit" to require the Service to comply with the law?  It is "unfortunate" that the Service has to use resources to achieve such compliance, instead of applying resources to "habitat acquisition and recovery"--at least some of which acquisition and recovery may not even be needed after appropriate 5-year reviews?

     Go figure.

"EPA RELEASES ANNUAL SUPERFUND REPORT"

Here's the link.