Focus

The Biden administration is moving to tighten oversight of projects that benefited from a narrowed interpretation of the scope of Clean Water Act jurisdiction adopted by the Trump administration, but some projects, including a controversial proposed titanium mine in Georgia, will probably escape scrutiny under the Biden administration’s broader jurisdictional interpretation. In a recently posted policy, the Biden administration announced that project proponents would not be able to rely on the kind of favorable jurisdictional assessments they enjoyed under the Trump administration’s rules. The new guidance generally does not apply, however, to projects for which proponents were told that none of the waters on their project site were subject to federal jurisdiction under the Trump administration’s interpretation — and could therefore advance without a federal permit — even if the same waters are now protected under the broader rules currently in place.

News

Los Angeles County sues warehouse owner over gas stench

Associated Press – January 15

Los Angeles County announced it is suing tenants and owners of a warehouse where a fire released illegally-stored chemicals into a drainage channel and caused a stench that lasted for weeks. The hydrogen sulfide gas odor caused a public nuisance affecting thousands of residents in the city of Carson, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The suit alleges that the tenants and owners of the storage facility were aware of the hazards at the site and failed to take steps to prevent the dangerous conditions that led to the fire.

Climate swings help endangered salmon return to Bay Area creeks for the first time in years

The Mercury News – January 14

Endangered Coho salmon are returning to Marin County creeks this winter where they have long been absent, thanks to intense rains that scientists say will become more frequent as the state swings between climate-driven drought and deluge. It’s a rare bit of good news for a species whose population has plummeted in recent decades due to development and pollution. In the San Francisco Bay Area, thousands of salmon historically made the annual return migration from the Pacific Ocean to creeks in Marin County to spawn.

FAA to change how some planes land in effort to cut emissions

ABC News – January 15

In an effort to cut emissions, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is changing the way some planes land at U.S. airports. Currently, most planes approach airports for landing by descending in a stair-step method, which requires them to repeatedly level off and power up engines during the descent. Under FAA’s new 42 Optimized Profile Descents, or OPDs, planes will instead descend from cruising altitude to the runway in a smoother, continuous path with engines set at near idle. The move is part of the agency's work to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from the aviation sector by 2050.