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In June 2008, the city manager of Manhattan Beach (a small, beach-front community in Southern California) issued a staff report recommending the adoption of an ordinance banning the use of "point-of-sale plastic carry-out bags" in the city....

California's Proposition 65 ( Sections 25249.5 et seq Health & Safety Code ) is an unusual regulatory scheme. Lawsuits may be filed by private individuals. Plaintiffs are not required to have standing. The law only addresses a warning requirement;...

As noted in prior posts, antibiotics are used not only to treat disease in animals, but also to prevent disease and to stimulate growth. Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, the use of antibiotics in animal husbandry has lead to the rapid development...

Ropers Majeski Kohn & Bentley partners Thomas Clarke and Dean Pappas have published an informative article by Best's Review (February 2012) that looks at the potential risks that arise from hydrofracking operations, and the extent to which a typical...

A RCRA notice is mandatory, as noted by the U.S. Supreme Court in Hallstrom v. Tillamook County , 493 U.S. 20, 26 (1989). The purpose of the notice is to a) inform public agencies of the alleged problem so that they can ascertain if they wish to take...

NL Industries owned a site through 2005. It entered into an administrative consent order with the State of New Jersey which required it to clean-up part of a site and investigate other portions, including sediments in an adjacent river. The sediments...

It is well known that warm sea-surface temperatures can boost the intensity of hurricanes (known in the Indian Ocean as cyclones). For many decades water in the Arabian Sea has been warm, which should enhance the strength of cyclones. However, regional...

A local Colorado district attorney, among others, filed suit against a city for allegedly discharging pollutants into a creek in violation of the CWA. The District Court granted the city's motion for summary judgment on the ground that the district...

As noted in prior posts, EPA has proposed national standards for mercury and other toxic pollutant emissions from power plants. See http://www.epa.gov/airquality/powerplanttoxics/ . Now Guam and 25 states have filed a challenge to the regulations. The...

When examining the issue of water shortages and water usage, most of the emphasis is on domestic utilization. Rarely is the issue posed in terms of the impact of trade on water usage. However, such an analysis poses an alternative, and interesting, methodology...

Is it possible to efficiently harness the often dim and indirect light found inside a room (e.g., from incandescent bulbs, fluorescent tubes, compact fluorescent bulbs, and light emitting diodes). The answer would now appear to be "yes." A...

First, some good news. Prior posts have noted repeatedly the key role that methane plays in global warming (the longterm trend in temperature, not seasonal or annual variations). Prior posts have also noted the role that particulates-aerosols play in...

The Amazon has long been conceived of as a CO2 sink because of its mass of vegetation. Researchers are now concerned that drought and deforestation may make it a net emitter. Because of regular measurements of about 100,000 trees, researchers estimate...

In Nov. 2010 the California Building Industry Association (CBIA) filed suit against the Bay Area Air Quality Management District's (BAAQMD) CEQA Guidelines re GHG emissions. Among other requirements, environmental evaluations were required if a project...

It was not that long ago that those who believe (on faith, not scientific fact) that there is no global warming, celebrated the snowfall in the Eastern U.S. as though it showed that global warming was not happening. Prior posts have reviewed a number...