Platform: Zoom

TO REGISTER: email RSVP to Andrea Friedman at AFriedman@AGAlliance.org, then you will receive full login details.

In addition to the roundtable discussion of natural resource, environmental, and Indian law issues, there will be an Indian Law Seminar. Topics to be covered are:

September 1, 2020

"American Indian and Alaska Native tribes are suing EPA and accusing the agency of illegally curbing their authority in Clean Water Act permitting for federally approved projects like pipelines and export terminals.

The Suquamish and Pyramid Lake Paiute tribes and the Orutsararmiut Native Council, represented by Earthjustice, filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, taking aim at a final rule EPA issued in June that limits the scope of state water quality reviews under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act.

The rule, already facing numerous lawsuits, bars governors from considering other concerns like climate change, and places a one-year deadline on state action (Greenwire, June 2). Columbia Riverkeeper and the Sierra Club are also plaintiffs in the suit."

August 31, 2020

"The Trump administration weakened a 2015 regulation that would have forced coal plants to treat wastewater with more modern, effective methods in order to curb toxic metals such as arsenic and mercury from contaminating lakes, rivers and streams near their facilities.

In a statement, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler said that the final rule’s “flexible, phased-in” approach would make it easier for the coal industry to comply while also protecting the environment. Three years ago the Trump administration delayed the Obama-era rule — which the EPA had estimated would keep 1.4 billion pounds of pollutants out of U.S. waterways each year — before replacing it with a scaled-back version."

September 2, 2020

"At a press conference at the Western Museum of Mining and Industry, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the creation of the Office of Mountains, Deserts and Plains located in EPA’s office in Lakewood, Colo. This western lands-focused office will address cross-cutting issues unique to the region, and more effectively leverage existing EPA staff, expertise and resources in hardrock mining cleanup."

September 4, 2020

"Furthering the Trump Administration’s objectives to balance effective, science-based conservation with commonsense policymaking, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is proposing regulations to clarify and update its processes for considering exclusions from critical habitat designations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The proposed changes relate to the Service’s recent announcement on the proposed definition of habitat and respond to a 2018 Supreme Court decision in the Weyerhauser case, as well as codifying and modifying current agency practices."

September 3, 2020

Western Governors request that federal agencies and state wildlife managers "maintain a close working relationship" in comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration about the proposed rule, Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Regulations for Listing Endangered and Threatened Species and Designating Critical Habitat. The proposed rule would establish a regulatory definition of “habitat” in the context of critical habitat designations under the Endangered Species Act. The Governors assert that collaboration on that definition will "ensure that any new interpretation or application of the term does not result in unintended consequences for state management of species." The letter of Sept. 3, 2020 was signed by WGA Chair Oregon Gov. Kate Brown and Vice Chair Idaho Gov. Brad Little.

September 4, 2020

"The Water and Tribes Initiative, a collaboration between the Center of Natural Resources and Environmental Policy at the University of Montana, the Babbitt Center for Land and Water Policy, Walton Family Foundation, Ten Tribes Partnership and other individuals

and groups, has published a report called “Toward a Sense of the Basin: Designing a Collaborative Process to Develop the Next Set of Guidelines for the Colorado River System.” This report was developed over the past year and a half in response to the upcoming negotiations beginning in late 2020 on new guidelines to replace Bureau of Reclamation’s (USBR) 2007 Interim Guidelines for operating the Colorado River. The effort consisted of over 100 interviews in 2019 and three workshops in 2019 and early 2020 that allowed stakeholders to discuss and provide feedback. Many Western States Water Council members were interviewed as part of the effort, as well as other state

representatives, tribes, local water providers, foundations, conservation groups, academics, and individuals from the International Boundary and Water Commission, the Department of the Interior and USBR."

September 1, 2020

"Top Interior Department officials misled Congress when they claimed high office rent in Washington, D.C., was a factor in the need to move the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to a new headquarters in Colorado, the agency’s internal watchdog found.

A report from Interior’s Office of Inspector General found that two officials overplayed the cost of BLM’s M Street SE lease near Nationals Park as a motivating factor in the move, as the agency already had plans underway to return to office space owned by the government.

Joseph Balash, a former assistant secretary for land and minerals management who now works in the oil industry, and BLM acting Director William Perry Pendley, whose tenure with the agency is the subject of a lawsuit, are implicated in the report."

Clay Smith, the American Indian Law Deskbook chief editor, summarizes Indian law decisions assigned headnotes by Westlaw to facilitate the Deskbook’s annual revision.

Please note, The 2019 Edition now appears on Westlaw under the Secondary Sources/Texts & Treatises category. We anticipate that the hardbound version will be out later this month

Updated American Indian Law Deskbook Is Now Available

The American Indian Law Deskbook is a concise, direct, and easy-to-understand handbook on Indian law. The chapter authors of this book are experienced state lawyers who have been involved in Indian law for many years.

American Indian Law Deskbook addresses the areas of Indian law most relevant to the practitioner.

We rely on our readers to send us links for the WAGLAC Newsletter. If you have or know of a recent (published in the last two weeks) case, statute or article relating to natural resources, environment, Indian law or federalism that you would like us to consider for inclusion in the Newsletter, please send it to Clive Strong. For a complete database of all previously published WAGLAC newsletters, please follow the link below.