not good for any of us

NEPA Reviews proposed to be limited and streamlined by Congress

Agreement with Manchin includes the rolling back of NEPA to streamline bedrock environmental processes to avoid NEPA reviews on Congress' selected projects.

This is not good for any of us to allow Congress to decide which projects can avoid full NEPA reviews, and which jurisdiction would hear motions to oppose and or appeals for a specific project. 

TARA HOUSKA: "It, to me, says you’ve got a project that has not passed environmental review. It’s a project that funders and investors are very concerned about. It’s a project that’s bad all the way around and just cannot get momentum and get it going. And here you see Congress just deciding, “Oh, you know what? We’re going to give it a pass,” and specifically this project, so, setting this precedent of, well, even if your project doesn’t meet environmental reviews, even if it’s not fiscally responsible, even if it’s not going to meet any standard of economic development, you still might get it through. That’s what this precedent is saying."  -- -From a recent interview with Democracy Now   .

According to -- Tara Houska, Indigenous lawyer and founder of Giniw Collective  it seems the Congressional agreement with Senator Manchin to pass the recent Reconciliation Bill in the Senate is "Like, this is a handshake agreement about the permitting provisions, the rolling back of NEPA, the, quote-unquote, “streamlining” of bedrock environmental processes and designation of 25 different projects to avoid these reviews." .... “Black and Brown people continue to disparately experience the effects of extractive industry,” she adds. Bishop William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign , says the bill contains too much compromise. “Part of the bill was putting a pipeline that Black and white and Brown and poor people in frontline communities are fighting right now,” he says.  

From a recent interview with Democracy Now  

JUAN GONZÁLEZ [Democracy Now]: The Inflation Reduction Act provides over $6 billion in funding for environmental justice priorities, something Rob Weissman mentioned earlier. Tara, was anyone in the environmental justice movement that you know involved in helping to craft this provision?

TARA HOUSKA: No. There’s been some pretty serious pushback regarding the lack of representation in the drafting of this bill, specifically on the pieces that affect our communities directly. You know, from my perspective, it doesn’t really work to throw money at us if we don’t have habitable places to live. So, if our communities are underwater or if our air is poisoned and we’ve got pipelines and mines and all the things that are destroying our lands actively, how is some investments in block grants supposed to help us? You know, those are really serious questions that this bill is lacking.

And to that one piece that was just said, too, about, like, where we’re at in terms of blocking the bill, you know, there is this side deal that Manchin has mentioned and that they promised him, right? Like, this is a handshake agreement about the permitting provisions, the rolling back of NEPA, the, quote-unquote, “streamlining” of bedrock environmental processes and designation of 25 different projects to avoid these reviews. That’s going back to the House, and they’re going to try to attach it to appropriations. So there still is something that can be done at the congressional level. 

In order to pass the recent Reconciliation Bill in the Senate, according to ProPublica article  : Contributed by Ken Ward Jr. (Mountain State Spotlight) to ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network    there is this Congressional agreement in order to " ... accommodate the West Virginia senator, Democratic leadership agreed to legislation streamlining permits for the often-stalled Mountain Valley Pipeline [MVP] and removing jurisdiction from a court that keeps ruling against the project." .... "The White House and congressional leaders have agreed to step in and ensure final approval of all permits that the Mountain Valley Pipeline needs, according to a summary released by Manchin’s office Monday evening."

https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22125418-2022_08_02_manchin-energy-permitting

Energy Permitting Provisions

Designate and prioritize projects of strategic national importance. 

 Direct the President to designate and periodically update a list of at least 25 high-priority energy infrastructure projects and prioritize permitting for these projects. 

 Require a balanced list of project types, including: critical minerals, nuclear, hydrogen, fossil fuels, electric transmission, renewables, and carbon capture, sequestration, storage, and removal. 

 Criteria for selecting designated projects includes: reducing consumer energy costs, improving energy reliability, decarbonization potential, and promoting energy trade with our allies. 

Set maximum timelines for permitting reviews, including two years for NEPA reviews for major projects and one year for lower-impact projects. 

 Require a single inter-agency environmental review document and concurrent agency review processes. 

 Designate a lead agency to coordinate inter-agency review. 

 Expand eligibility for the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (FPISC) streamlining and transparency programs to ensure smaller energy projects, critical minerals and mining, and other key programs can benefit from FPISC. Provide FPISC funds to accelerate permitting. 

 Improve the process for developing categorical exclusions under NEPA. 

Improve Section 401 of the Clean Water Act by incorporating improvements from both the Trump and Biden administrations. 

 Require one of four final actions within one year of certification requests: grant, grant with conditions, deny, or waive certification. 

 Clarify that the basis of review is water quality impacts from the permitted activity, based on federal, State, and Tribal standards. 

 Require certification applications to include available information on potential water quality impacts. 

 Prohibit State or Tribal agencies from requesting project applicants to withdraw applications to stop/pause/restart the certification clock. 

 Require States and Tribes to publish clear requirements for water quality certification requests, or else default to federal requirements. 

Address excessive litigation delays. 

 Set statute of limitations for court challenges. 

 Require that if a federal court remands or vacates a permit for energy infrastructure, the court must set and enforce a reasonable schedule and deadline, not to exceed 180 days, for the agency to act on remand. 

 Require random assignment of judges for all federal circuit courts. 

Clarify FERC jurisdiction regarding the regulation of interstate hydrogen pipeline, storage, import, and export facilities. 

Enhance federal government permitting authority for interstate electric transmission facilities that have been determined by the Secretary of Energy to be in the national interest. 

 Replace DOE’s national interest electric transmission corridor process with a national interest determination by the Secretary of Energy that allows FERC to issue a construction permit. 

 Require FERC to ensure costs for transmission projects are allocated to customers that benefit. 

 Allow FERC to approve payments from utilities to jurisdictions impacted by a transmission project. 

Complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline. Require the relevant agencies to take all necessary actions to permit the construction and operation of the Mountain Valley Pipeline and give the DC Circuit jurisdiction over any further litigation.

no update available on diesel fuel spill

 Given no update at this time on the diesel fuel spill in our community canal, here's some suggested reading on the clean water act and what every resident and community partner can do to be part of the solution.  

According to Louisiana Land CAN [Conservation Assistance Network] The State of "Louisiana determined that agriculture, forestry, urban runoff, home sewage systems, sand and gravel mining, construction and hydromodification all contribute to nonpoint source pollution problems across the state. Nonpoint source pollution is the largest remaining type of water pollution that needs to be addressed within Louisiana and across the nation in order to restore the designated uses (i.e. fishing and swimming) to the impaired water bodies."

https://www.louisianalandcan.org/local-resources/Louisianas-Nonpoint-Source-Pollution-Unit--LDEQ/32467#:~:text=Louisiana%20Land%20Conservation%20Assistance%20Network,-Toggle%20navigation&text=Nonpoint%20source%20pollution%20is%20a,is%20generated%20during%20rainfall%20events.

https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/swamp/docs/cwt/guidance/112a1.pdf

The June 2022 discovery of diesel in our community's canals should give us all pause to consider how fuel and motor oil and other chemicals migrate into the surrounding wetlands, not only from industrial facilities but also from our residential driveways and local businesses. Rain waters carry chemicals from facilities and driveways alike into the wetlands via storm water canals. The canals are discharged into the sensitive estuaries of the central wetlands, including Bayou Bienvenue. 

According to LDEQ, just one gallon of motor oil from the change of a vehicle will pollute a million gallons of water. Let's all do our part to be part of the solution and not dump wastes into municipal storm drains and storm water canals. 

It's hurricane season, is your refinery ready?

 

The recent discovery of diesel in our community's canals should give us all pause to consider how fuel and motor oil and other chemicals migrate into the surrounding wetlands, not only from industrial facilities but also from our residential driveways. Rain waters carry chemicals from facilities and driveways alike into the wetlands via storm water canals. The canals are discharged into the sensitive estuaries of the central wetlands, including Bayou Bienvenue. 

According to LDEQ, just one gallon of motor oil from the change of a vehicle will pollute a million gallons of water. Let's all do our part to be part of the solution and not dump wastes into municipal storm drains and canals. Additionally, storage tanks should comply with the clean water act and have a surrounding containment area capable of containing the full contents of the tank. Spills and leaks should be promptly reported to prevent human health risks. Mitigation and clean-up should begin as soon as the incident is known. Spill and leak prevention, including routine inspections and other countermeasures should already be in place to keep our wetlands from contamination. 

The recent discovery of diesel in our community's canals also highlights how ill prepared nearby facilities, including our own drainage pumps and waste water treatment plant, may be for hurricanes, tropical rain storms, and other rain events. Crude oil, diesel, and other chemicals stored in tanks are subject to EPA's spill prevention, control, and countermeasure regulations [SPCC] (40 CFR Part 112). Owners and operators of a SPCC qualified facility are required to ensure there is adequate secondary containment to prevent oil and chemical leaks and spills from reaching waterways. 

Many residents fish or kayak and otherwise enjoy the 40 arpent canal or the canal's bicycle and walking paths, and the district councilmember has requested SBPG place temporary signs to alert the public of the ongoing fuel discharge incident and to not fish these waters until further notice.

On the June 2022 diesel spill/leak incident, the silence from LDEQ and other protection agencies is deafening. It's hurricane season, are the refineries ready? In 2005, a nearby tank farm had more than one tank with serious issues known long before the storms. Lessons learned should be implemented and not ignored, swept under the rug, or allowed to wash out into the sea. We all have the right to clean air, clean water, and uncontaminated soil. Let's all do our part to be part of the solution.

Title V Air Permits

 If you are like most people, you are unsure of how to find out whether an industrial facility that pollutes the air in your community (such as a factory, power plant, or municipal waste incinerator) is complying with the Clean Air Act. Air quality requirements are numerous and complex. What requirements apply to the facility that you are concerned about? How do you find out if the facility is obeying the requirements?

This handbook will help you ensure that a Title V permit issued to a facility in your community is as protective of human health and the environment as possible.  [Keri Powell, New York Public Interest Research Group (New York, NY)]

The Proof is in the Permit

updated 2020

http://www.cacwny.org/docs/Title%20V%20-%20The%20proof%20is%20in%20the%20permit.PDF

fuel spill under investigation

 

Environmental Justice for ALL Act

This weekend The Descendants Project will host a congressional delegation to discuss the environmental issues in Cancer Alley including the proposed Greenfield Grain Elevator, and the Environmental Justice For All Act. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/2021/text

Chair Grijalva will be joined by Rep Troy Carter this weekend for a press conference, a tour through St. James and St. John parishes, and a land blessing ceremony at the site of the grain elevator for Sunday, Juneteenth.

We will share more information over the next couple of days!

#DescendantsProjectLousiana #stopthewallacegrainelevator

#Juneteenth2022 #Juneteenth #EnvironmentalJustice

benzene exposure

 Louisiana refineries measured excessively high levels of cancer-causing chemical in 2021

Mark Schleifstein   
Nola.com The New Orleans Advocate

https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_abc6493a-d230-11ec-b70b-33d4441c4873.html
uthor email

Valero’s St. Charles refinery was ranked fourth on the list of 12 highest emitters, with 14.1 micrograms per cubic meter in 2021. And at least one fenceline monitor measured a two-week average concentration greater than 29 micrograms per cubic meter, the level considered acute. But more problematic was an average reading of 300 micrograms per cubic meter during the two-week monitoring period that ended on Sept. 6, 2021, which was after Hurricane Ida disrupted the plant’s operations.

“That’s very close to the level where the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health says you should be wearing respirators,” Schaeffer said. “And that’s the kind of exposure information that needs to get out quickly. The requirement to fix these kinds of problems should apply not just to the long-term averages, but to this kind of short-term spike that can be very dangerous.”