Construction has caused multiple drilling fluid spills in the refuge; pipeline being built to attract business to mega industrial site next to Nation territory

The Tonawanda Seneca Nation filed a lawsuit in the Western District Court of New York challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to grant a right-of-way permit for an industrial wastewater pipeline through the Iroquois National Wildlife Refuge. The pipeline permit approval and subsequent drilling, which violates the National Wildlife Refuge Improvement Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, and the National Historic Preservation Act, has caused multiple spills of hundreds of gallons of drilling fluids onto federally protected land and wetlands, prompting several pipeline construction stop orders.

Court order vacates expansion of Rosebud’s Area B mining permit

Earthjustice filed an appeal and a motion to prevent construction on the Alaska mega-project. Here’s what comes next.

The Montana Supreme Court ruled on November 22, 2023, that the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) repeatedly ignored the law and failed to protect water quality from an expansion of the “Area B” permit area of the Rosebud coal strip mine near Colstrip, one of the largest coal strip mines in the nation. The court’s order vacated the mining permit, finding that Montana’s laws governing strip mining (the Montana Strip and Underground Mine Reclamation Act) prohibit DEQ from allowing strip mining if a company cannot assure that water resources will be protected.

As carbon capture booms, communities in Louisiana are worried it will prolong the use of dirty fossil fuel plants.

U.S. fishing groups are suing tire manufactures over 6PPD, a chemical in tires, which interacts with ground-level ozone to create the highly toxic 6PPD-q.

6PPD interacts with ozone to create the highly toxic 6PPD-q

The Institute for Fisheries Resources (IFR) and the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations (PCFFA) filed suit against U.S. tire manufacturers over the use of the chemical 6PPD in rubber tires because of its devastating impacts on Endangered Species Act (ESA)-protected salmon and steelhead.

The bill doubles down on policies that reject science, undermine environmental protections, and prioritize the profits of polluting industries over our health

EPA agrees with petitioners that federal regulation is needed to address environmental risks

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) granted a petition submitted by the Yurok, Port Gamble S’Klallam, and Puyallup Tribes, which asked EPA to develop regulations that prohibit the use of the chemical 6PPD in tires due to the lethal effects of its use for salmon, steelhead trout, and other wildlife.

Toxic “forever chemicals” remain laxly regulated.

Conservation organizations challenged a controversial wastewater discharge permit for the Palmer Project, a proposed multi-metals mine at the Chilkat Watershed’s headwaters. Earthjustice filed an appeal in Alaska Superior Court on behalf of Lynn Canal Conservation, Rivers Without Borders, and the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council seeking more protective standards for wastewater discharge from mineral exploration conducted by Constantine Metal Resources Ltd (Constantine), a subsidiary of Vancouver, B.C.-based American Pacific Mining.

Regional groups seek tougher standards to protect Chilkat Watershed from Palmer Project wastewater

The States of Washington, Oregon, Vermont, Rhode Island, and Connecticut sent a letter to the EPA voicing strong support for a recent petition from Tribes to the EPA on 6PPD, noting that “6PPD, along with its highly toxic product 6PPD-q, poses an unreasonable threat to the States’ waters and fish resources, and to the continued existence of Northwest salmon and steelhead runs.”

Saving the endangered golden-cheeked warbler will help us protect an abundance of plants and animals in the Texas Hill Country.

Companies and military bases must now disclose more PFAS pollution