Pebble Tapes Reveal Larger Mine Planned and More
On September 21, the not-for-profit Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) released a series of recordings with top Pebble Mine executives that revealed Pebble's plans to build a vastly larger and longer-lived toxic open-pit mine than evaluated in the Pebble Mine Environmental Impact Statement. These Pebble Tapes also include troubling remarks about Pebble's relationship and influence with elected officials, its plans to open up more of western Alaska to mining, and much more. Following the tapes' release, Tom Collier announced his resignation as Pebble's CEO while some in Congress are calling for an investigation.
Learn more:
|
|
Nominations Open: America's Most Endangered Rivers® 2021
WPN member American Rivers is now seeking nominations for America’s Most Endangered Rivers® 2021 from across the country that reflect the myriad of important issues facing our nation’s rivers. Please consider nominating a river or sharing the call for nominations with your community and colleagues. In particular, American Rivers wants to expand outreach to communities of color, including Black, Latinx and Indigenous communities, working on river protection and water issues.
The America’s Most Endangered Rivers campaign is one of the best-known and most effective public advocacy initiatives in the environmental movement. Each year since 1984, American Rivers has collaborated with local river conservationists to highlight ten rivers that face urgent threats to galvanize public action and secure victories for rivers, clean water and communities.
The Most Endangered Rivers are selected based on the following criteria:
- The public can influence a decision in the coming year that will impact the river’s fate.
- The river holds deep meaning to people and nature.
- The magnitude of threat to the river and its communities is significant, especially in light of a changing climate and/or environmental justice.
The America’s Most Endangered Rivers® report will be released in April 2021, kicking off a year-long national outreach and communications effort that presents alternatives to proposals that would damage rivers, identifies those who make the crucial decisions, and highlights opportunities for the public to take action on behalf of each listed river.
Click here to submit a nomination for the Most Endangered Rivers 2021 by the Friday, November 13, 2020 deadline.
Click here for Frequently Asked Questions.
|
|
Proposed Nationwide Permits: November 16 Comment Deadline
In mid-September, the Corps of Engineers published its Proposal To Reissue and Modify Nationwide Permits to revise and replace 2017 Nationwide Permits (NWPs). The proposed new NWPs would significantly roll back important protections, including by removing restrictions on the extent of impacts allowed and by allowing more activities to move forward under nationwide permits. This would mean that more activities would move forward without going through an assessment of impacts.
We strongly encourage WPN Members to submit comments on the proposal before the November 16th public comment deadline. Please also stay tuned for more developments, including a likely WPN sign-on letter highlighting key issues of concern.
Learn more and comment:
|
|
National Environmental Policy Act: Litigation Updates & Webinar
The list of lawsuits challenging the Trump administration's new National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rule - which drastically undermines critical environmental and public health protections provided by NEPA - continues to grow. On September 22, a group of state attorneys general filed a notice of intent to sue the Trump administration for violating the Endangered Species Act by not addressing the NEPA rule's impacts on endangered and threatened species. On September 23, a coalition of rural advocacy, environmental, and animal protection organizations, including WPN member Waterkeeper Alliance filed the fifth lawsuit challenging CEQ's regulations. This lawsuit challenges the NEPA rule's exemption of federally-funded factory farms, or Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs), and slaughterhouses from all NEPA review.
Learn more:
|
|
October 2nd Webinar: Help Shape Ohio River Restoration, Confront Climate Crisis, Reverse Environmental Injustice
The Ohio River basin states – along with federal agencies, interagency organizations, non-governmental organizations, and others – are collaborating to craft an ecosystem restoration plan for the Ohio River and its tributaries, wetlands and forests. Tomorrow, October 2nd at 10am to 12pm ET, WPN member National Wildlife Federation will be hosting an interactive discussion via webinar for those who want to be part of that collaboration. Diverse stakeholders from throughout Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia are all invited to participate. Please click here to learn more and click here to join the webinar.
|
|
Recent Public Notices
This is a non-comprehensive list of Corps of Engineers public notices from the Federal Register and Corps district websites, and select notices from other federal agencies. Please visit FederalRegister.gov, Corps division and district websites, and other federal agencies' websites for additional public notices. Click here for examples of comments and letters submitted to the Corps by WPN members.
Corps of Engineers Notices
- To be published 10/02: Notice of Inland Waterways Users Board Meetings (Meeting on 10/30)
- To be published 10/02: Availability of and Request for Comment on an Interim Report for the Buffalo Bayou and Tributaries, Texas Resiliency Study (Comment deadline 11/02)
- Published 9/30: Unitah Basin Transportation Corridor project, Utah (Comment deadline 10/31)
- Published 9/30: Scoping meetings for Dakota Access Pipeline Environmental Impact Statement for easement at Oahe Dam and Reservoir Project on the Missouri River (Comment deadline 10/26; meetings on 10/15 and 10/16)
- Published 9/30: Notice of International Kootenay Lake Board of Control meeting (Meeting on 10/06)
- Published 9/29: Request to modify the New Hampshire Aquatic Resource Mitigation Fund In-Lieu Fee (“ILF”) Program Instrument (Comment deadline 10/29)
- Published 9/28: Alternative permit application processing procedures for activities in response to Hurricane Sally, FL (Effective 9/24/2020 to 3/24/2021)
- Published 9/24: Final Environmental Assessment and Finding of No Significant Impact for the Drain 27 Wetland Restoration Project near Fargo, ND
- Published 9/24: North Branch Ecorse Creek Flood Risk Management General Reevaluation Report and Environmental Assessment, MI
- Published 9/22: Mississippi River mainline levees Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement virtual public meetings scheduled (Comment deadline 10/13; virtual meeting TODAY 10/01)
- Published 9/22: Quonset Development Corporation Narragansett Bay MacNaught Street pier, RI (Comment deadline 10/22)
- Published 9/21: Reissuance of Regional General Permit PGP SAJ-71 for live rock aquaculture, FL (Comment deadline 10/21)
- Published 9/21: Reissuance of Regional General Permit PGP SAJ-83 for activities in the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation (Comment deadline 10/21)
- Published 9/21: Lowell Creek flood diversion project in Seward, AK Draft Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Assessment (Comment deadline 10/21)
- Published 9/18: Issuance of Regional General Permit 20-02 (20-RGP-02) for management or control of exotic invasive aquatic species, Nashville District
- Published 9/18: Chehalis River Basin Flood Damage Reduction Project draft environmental impact statement (DEIS), WA (Comment deadline 11/17; meetings on 10/08 and 10/14)
- Published 9/17: Selma, AL Flood Risk Management Feasibility Study (Comment deadline 10/17)
- Published 9/16: Regional General Permit for the City of Vista Channel Maintenance, CA (Comment deadline 10/17)
- Published 9/15: Proposal to Reissue and Modify Nationwide Permits (Comment deadline 11/16)
- Published 9/14: Issuance of Regional General Permit 20-RGP-01 in TN and KY
- Published 9/11: Master Plan Revision for John W. Flannagan Lake and North Fork of Pound Lake, VA (Comment deadline 10/08)
- Published 9/11: Issuance of Regional General Permit 2, CA
- Published 9/10: Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for an Easement to Cross Under Lake Oahe, ND for a Fuel-Carrying Pipeline Right-Of-Way for a Portion of the Dakota Access Pipeline (Comment deadline 10/26)
- Published 9/10: Withdrawal of the Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Upper Susquehanna River Basin, New York, Comprehensive Flood Damage Reduction Feasibility Study
- Published 9/10: Notice of Intent To Prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the Nassau County Back Bays Coastal Storm Risk Management Feasibility Study
- Published 9/10: City of Cumberland/CSO Storage Facility Project/Utility Line, MD (Comment deadline 10/09)
- Published 9/10: Grove Harbor Marina expansion, Biscayne Bay, FL (Comment deadline 10/31)
- Published 9/09: Proposal to Issue 5-year Pennsylvania State Programmatic General Permit 6 (PASPGP-6) (Comment deadline 10/04)
- Published 9/03: Issuance of the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load Regional General Permit (Bay TMDL RGP)
- Published 9/02: Proposed Plan (PP) recommendation for future cleanup activities at the former Manassas Air Force Communications Facility (MAFCF), VA (Comment deadline TOMORROW 10/02)
Other Agency Notices
|
|
|
|