Court Case Name: Sackett V. US EPA

Plaintiffs assert that Defendants’ chemical land farming operation near their homes that are polluting the air violates Subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act 42 and Section 112 of the Clean Air Act. Plaintiffs contend that these human rights violations are demonstrated by the fact that, (1) the Defendants failed to operate their pollution control equipment and (2) the Defendants did not acquire a permit from the United States Environmental Protection Agency or the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality to store hazardous waste in Alsen, Louisiana.

The citizen suit provision of the Clean Water Act is an important tool to protect and improve rivers, creeks, streams, and wetlands especially as state agencies may not have the resources to conduct regular water quality monitoring on every water body. Citizen involvement in monitoring and reporting pollution problems is key to watershed protection; hereby helping the government enforce the laws.

Earlier this year the Havasupai Tribe and a coalition of conservation groups sued the United States Forest Service for allowing Energy Fuel Resources Inc. to operate a mine under a 1986 federal environmental review without tribal consultation. The Canyon mine was previously in non-operational status due to low uranium stock prices in 1992. Opponents of the uranium mining operation want the federal environmental review updated and

When Reclamation had purchased the local irrigation, the Irrigation Land Improvement Co had been fighting got the legal action. Since Irrigation Co have been wanting this they were suppose to go to the

What role did the individual or group play in taking this case to court? What/ who encouraged them?

The Plaintiffs, Garetsons, own a well in Haskell County, which they use for irrigation pursuant to a vested water right. The Defendant, American Warrior Inc. (AWI), owns two nearby wells with junior water appropriation rights. Garetsons sued AWI requesting an injunction to prevent AWI from pumping groundwater. The District Court found that AWI’s wells were causing significant impairment and drawdown of the Garetsons’ water rights. As a result, tThe District Court granted an

In 1923-1947 Arkansas Power and Light (AP&L) constructed several dams on two Arkansas lakes, Hamilton and Catherine. AP & L obtained “flood easements” on property adjoining the lakes. AP&L sold lake side property and kept the easement in force. These flood easements permitted AP&L to “clear of trees, brush, and other obstruction and to submerge by

the case was heard by a Federal court because there was a clear and legitimate question on

They have increased attention to the problem through media outlets and policy makers, and the number of organizations have increased to fight environmental injustices (9) One of the first major environmental justice events that sparked the attention of the environmental justice movement was the 1982 PCB landfill in Warren county North Carolina located in a predominantly African American community. The landfill ignited protests and over 500 people were arrested (2). Patterns of environmental injustices were studied and results concluded that “race was the single most important factor in predicting the location of hazardous facilities” (9). The studies showed that 3 out of 4 hazardous waste landfills were placed in predominantly African American communities and it took nearly two decades to get the landfill cleaned up. It took 1.8 million dollars to detoxify the contaminated soil and dig up and burn the soil at over 800 degrees F to remove the PCBs contaminating it (2). The soil was then put in a pit the size of a football field and seeded to grow grass over it (2). The federal government under President Clinton in 1994, who issued an executive order, required federal agencies to include environmental justice considerations in policy issues and assessments when

Court declined to articulate any ftirther requirements.^* The cases described below demonstrate: (1) the Supreme Court's condemnation of a death penalty applied at least arbitrarily, if not discriminatorily,^' (2) its call for procedural protections to ensure against arbitrariness'" and racial discrimination," and (3) its rejection of a constitutional argument based on statistical evidence that current procedural protections are ineffective at guarding against arbitrariness and racial discrimination. '^ Accordingly, the following cases demonsfrate the need for states to develop mechanisms for addressing discrimination through legislation such as RJAs. 1. Furman v. Georgia and Gregg v. Georgia; The Court Requires Procedural Protections In Furman

I do believe that the decision makers (the courts) acted fairly. Taking into consideration that this was the first case of its kind many issues had to be addressed and all level from both the State of Georgia and the Copper Companies. It is also noted that there were no environmental laws nor environmental bureaucracy at this time. Georgia vs. Tennessee remains potent as a legal precedent. (251-252)

Did you know the EPA has a federal criminal Investigation division with a 90% conviction rate? (About EPA). Surprisingly not that many people know what EPA stands for or what they do. The United States Environmental Protection Agency, Also known as the EPA was established in July 1970 by congress in response of the growing demand by the public for cleaner water, air, and land. By the 1980’s, the EPA recognized that the enforcement of environmental laws required the use of criminal investigators. The EPA’s criminal enforcement program was established in 1982. Due to the growing cases that involved environmental crime, Congress decided to grant the EPA full law enforcement authority in 1988 implementing its criminal investigation division (CID).

A Civil Action is based upon a true story that Jonathan Harr, a former staff writer of New England Monthly describes a case that in the legal system that is fascinating and compelling. The story of a impracticable quest by an idealistic young personal-Injury lawyer, whose aim was to prove that two conglomerates, Beatrice Foods and W.R Grace, allegedly polluted the water in Woburn ,Mass. a Boston suburb, with carcinogens. Jan had hoped that a victory would send a message to the boardrooms to America and felt that the culture of Leukemia in Woburn guaranteed his success. He never realized that he would be comforted with problems in the justice system.

TMDLs measure the maximum amount of pollutant allow to enter the water without impacting the water quality.The drawback being that most states have lacked the resources to undertake this task, and the EPA has been circumspect to step in and to take responsibility, due to that fact that it lacks the necessary personnel to do the job nationwide. Since the late 1980s, there have over 40 lawsuits in 38 states against the EPA regarding TMDL.(Water Encyclopedia), Recent,Waterkeepers Chesapeake and 7 other Riverkeeper organizations, represented by Earthjustice organization,a non-profit environmental law firm, have filed lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) over the involvement of the delisting of 53 river segments in 17 Maryland counties and Baltimore City. This lawsuit challenges a regulatory action by the EPA that followed the approval of the Bay

In August, presiding U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth issued an opinion stating the EPA’s “failure to deny the allegations that personal accounts were being used to conduct official business leaves open the possibility that they were.” Accompanying the opinion was an order permitting Landmark to conduct discovery limited to the following issues: whether and to what extent the EPA administrator, deputy administrator and/or chief of staff utilized personal e-mail accounts to conduct official business during the relevant time periods and whether the EPA intentionally excluded those personnel from the FOIA request response.