Focus
THE HILL - Sep 24 The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is appealing a federal court ruling ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to ban the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which has been linked to developmental and neurological disorders. DOJ attorneys said that the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco violated both Supreme Court precedent and the underlying law when it ruled that former EPA head Scott Pruitt improperly rejected a petition in 2017 to ban the pesticide. Instead of ordering the EPA to ban the pesticide, the court should have overturned the agency’s decision and sent it back for reconsideration, DOJ attorneys argued in their Monday filing. The Ninth Circuit’s August ruling was a victory for environmentalists and food safety advocates, who have been pushing for years for the EPA to crack down on chlorpyrifos.
MODESTO BEE - Sep 25 In a letter last Friday to State Water Resources Control Board (Board) Chair Felicia Marcus, Senator Dianne Feinstein and some state representatives said a voluntary settlement will achieve more in restoring salmon in tributaries of the San Joaquin River than the Board’s proposed flow requirement. The Board is slated for a November 7 vote on a Bay-Delta water quality update, which would require a 40 percent unimpaired flow from nearby tributaries to the San Joaquin River for the purpose of reviving chinook salmon migrations through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Approval of the flow requirement is expected to trigger lawsuits by irrigation districts in Stanislaus and Merced Counties and southern San Joaquin County.
SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE - Sep 25 The San Diego County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday unanimously approved the 2,135-home Newland Sierra development in North San Diego County. The approval caps six years of planning by developer Newland Communities, and came just a day after a Superior Court judge refused to halt the vote at the behest of the Sierra Club and Golden Door Spa, which argued that the developer's proposed approach to mitigating the project’s greenhouse gas emissions was likely to be ruled illegal later this year. Project opponents said a lawsuit will be filed within weeks to challenge the decision.
THE TRIBUNE - Sep 26 A jury this week affirmed that public water suppliers in the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin in San Luis Obispo County have established rights to use underground water supplies consistent with historical practice even during times of shortage, county officials said in a news release. The question arose in a lawsuit filed nearly five years ago by a group who argued that their rights, as overlying landowners, to pump groundwater from the basin are equal or superior to the rights of the county and other governmental entities that also pump from the basin. In the next phase of the case, the judge will likely determine how much water public water suppliers have a right to pump beyond a safe yield over and above the rights of the private landowners. Water users in the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin are currently in negotiations to create a state-mandated groundwater management plan under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE - Sep 20 As part of a settlement announced last Thursday, Whole Foods Market will pay $1.64 million to settle claims by 21 California cities and counties, led by Yolo County, that its stores improperly handled and disposed of hazardous wastes. The cities and counties accused Whole Foods and two affiliated companies, Mrs. Gooch’s Natural Food Markets and WFM-MO, of mishandling waste products that included batteries, electronic devices, aerosols, cleaning agents, and other flammable, corrosive, or toxic substances over a five-year period in California. The settlement includes $1.2 million in civil penalties to be shared by the local governments.
