Water
Unnecessarily Hesitant Good Samaritans: Conducting Voluntary Cleanups of Inactive and Abandoned Mines Without Incurring Liability

Until the 1970s, federal and state laws did little to control the harmful water quality impacts of mining exploration, and mine wastes were regularly deposited wherever was convenient, including…

Agricultural Biotechnology: Environmental Benefits for Identifiable Environmental Problems

Agricultural biotechnology has generated much debate about the environmental consequences of field trials and commercialization of transgenic crops. Thus far, the debate has focused on opponents'…

The Myths and Truths That Threaten the TMDL Program

Thirty years in the making, the total maximum daily load (TMDL) program of §303(d) of the Clean Water Act (CWA) has never seemed farther from implementation. As state governments increasingly have…

Could SWANCC Be Right? A New Look at the Legislative History of the Clean Water Act

For over two decades, courts and agencies have assumed that the Clean Water Act (CWA) grants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps)…

The Clean Water Act TMDL Program V: Aftershock and Prelude

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in the process of redesigning the Clean Water Act's (CWA's) total maximum daily load (TMDL) program. Section 303 of the Act requires states and,…

The Minimal Effects Exemption and the Regulation of Headwater Wetlands Under Swampbuster, With a Coda on the Theme of SWANCC

Under the Wetland Conservation subtitle of the Food Security Act of 1985, as amended, commonly known as "Swampbuster," wetlands may be used to grow crops provided they are not degraded by this…

SWANCC: Constitutional Swan Song for Environmental Laws or No More Than a Swipe at Their Sweep?

The U.S. Supreme Court decision last term in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (SWANCC), striking down the migratory bird rule for…

The Curious Flight of the Migratory Bird Rule

Few, if any, issues have divided environmental lawyers more than the legitimacy of the Migratory Bird Rule (Rule). Ever since its adoption in 1986 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA…

Textualism's Limits on the Administrative State: Of Isolated Waters, Barking Dogs, and Chevron

In Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County (SWANCC) v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Supreme Court recently held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) does not…

The Court, the Clean Water Act, and the Constitution: SWANCC and Beyond

Environmentalists are no strangers to disappointment in the U.S. Supreme Court, but the recent case of Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (…