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Supreme Court Sharply Limits Federal Government's Ability to Police Pollution Into Certain Wetlands

The Supreme Court on Thursday sharply limited the federal government’s authority to police water pollution into certain wetlands, the second decision in as many years in which a conservative majority narrowed the reach of environmental regulations.

The outcome could threaten efforts to control flooding on the Mississippi River and protect the Chesapeake Bay, among many projects, wrote Justice Brett Kavanaugh, breaking with the other five conservatives. Environmental advocates said the decision would strip protections from tens of millions of acres of wetlands.

By a 5–4 vote, the court said in an opinion by Justice Samuel Alito that wetlands can only be regulated under the Clean Water Act if they have a “continuous surface connection” to larger, regulated bodies of water. There is no such connection on the Sacketts’ property.

Kavanaugh wrote that the court’s “new and overly narrow test may leave long-regulated and long-accepted-to-be regulable wetlands suddenly beyond the scope of the agencies’ regulatory authority.”

California water officials say they are disappointed with the decision, but that the ruling doesn’t block California’s stronger environmental rules.

The Supreme Court ruled that the Clean Water Act only applies to wetlands with aboveground flow to main-stem rivers and other big bodies of water. California passed stronger environmental rules in 2019 protecting marshes that sit behind levees, dikes and dunes.

While the state is confident in its rules, Eric Buescher with [San Francisco] Baykeeper says state law doesn’t require industry to report wetland pollution. “That self-identification is vital to communities knowing who is polluting or where pollution is occurring,” said Buescher.

Cal Poly Humboldt women’s rowing team win the NCAA Division II National Championship

The Cal Poly Humboldt women’s rowing team won a national championship with a perfect score on Saturday. The Lumberjacks won both the Fours Grand Final and Eights Grand Final at the NCAA Division-II championships in New Jersey.

This is the third time in program history that the Cal Poly program has taken home a national title, having also done so in 2012 and 2014.

The Humboldt V4 lineup consisted of Emily Daniels (coxswain), Sarah Lorenzini, Kylie Mosley, Chloe Pieper-Wasem, and Gewndolyn Sutton.

The Humboldt V8 lineup included coxswain Sonja Scollon and Malia Seeley, Alyssa Paynton, Gabriella Griffin, Dana Foley, Cassidy Hollenbeck, Kealey Scott, Elizabeth Walters, and Molly Urtz.

The team is coached by head coach Matt Weise and assistants Ashley Donnell and Patrick Hyland.

Harbor District Awarded $500,000 EPA Grant to Assess Contamination at Redwood Marine Terminal

Representative Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) shared the announcement that over $4.4 million from President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda has been awarded to expedite the assessment and cleanup of brownfield sites in Northern California while advancing environmental justice. $1.45 of this funding is headed specifically to three projects in California’s Second Congressional District: Hoopa Valley Tribe, Cleanup Grant; Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation, and Conservation District, Assessment Grant; and Tolowa Dee-ni’ Nation, Cleanup Grant.

The Harbor District was awarded $500,000 to support assessment and cleanup planning at the Redwood Marine Terminal, focusing on a former lumber mill with pentachlorophenol and dioxin contamination to support redevelopment into the Humboldt Bay Offshore Wind Heavy Lift Marine Terminal. The new terminal will support tenants in the manufacturing, installation, and operation of renewable energy offshore wind floating platforms and provide crewing and marshaling services in the waters of the Pacific Ocean.

“Cleaning up brownfields is good for the environment, the economy, and surrounding communities that suffer the lasting impacts that polluting and extractive industries have left behind. Contaminated and abandoned areas are dangerous blemishes that keep communities from using these places to the fullest,” said Rep. Jared Huffman. “It’s great to see money from Democrats’ historic investments going towards cleanup projects in my district. Part of our vision for the Investing in America Agenda is to rebuild and restore our land and infrastructure with a focus on climate resiliency and environmental justice. This grant will go a long way in revitalizing potential wastelands, allowing them to be utilized as working places for the tribes and cities that depend on them.”

California bill would formally ban herbicides on state roads

A California bill would formalize what Humboldt County has been doing since 1989 — ban the use of weedkillers on state highways in counties that restrict the use.

Assembly Bill 99 would require Caltrans to pivot away from chemical deployment and instead use other methods such as laying concrete, mowing and mulching to prevent overgrowth onto state highways.

In 1989, the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors entered into an agreement with Caltrans to stop spraying herbicides on state roads in the county.

“In 1989, the Humboldt County Board of Supes was very conservative and it voted unanimously to ask Caltrans to stop, not spray, to continue the no-spray program, but there’s never been anything written, you can’t even find anything down at the county supervisors archives,” Patty Clary, executive director of the Arcata-based Californians for Alternatives to Toxics, said.

“To get this bill passed would then formalize that agreement and make it permanent,” she added.

On Monday, the state Assembly approved the bill, authored by Assemblymember Damon Connolly (D-San Rafael), with a 55-16 party-line vote, meaning it is headed to the relatively more left-leaning state Senate. Mendocino County has also suspended the use of herbicides on state roadways.

420,842 pounds of the toxic substances were used to manage state highway roadside vegetation in 2022, according to a CATs news release.

Lanphere, Ma-le’l Dunes now a national landmark

On Thursday, Humboldt County’s Lanphere and Ma-le’l Dunes in Manila became one of the dozens of sites in the state to be awarded a National Natural Landmark designation.

The Lanphere and Ma-le’l Dunes stretch across 1.25 miles of coastline, featuring lush plant life, swamps, and as the dedication ceremony’s attendees quickly discovered, a vibrant mosquito population. They are the most pristine coastal dunes in the Pacific Northwest, said Bureau of Land Management assistant field manager Jennifer Wheeler, who spoke at the dedication ceremony.

“Through leadership and strong partnerships, thousands of people including many of you here today have come together in service to this unique coastal landscape,” Wheeler said. “Collectively, we’ve protected cultural resources, restored native plant communities, habitat for native pollinators and other wildlife, restored physical and ecological dune processes and provided a window into an ancient natural landscape, and we’ve done it while providing for compatible public use and recreation, serving the needs and well being of individuals and families at the local, national and even global community level.”

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