News from the Conservation Law Center, Inc

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The Conservation Law Center provides legal counsel without charge to conservation organizations, works to improve conservation law and policy, and offers law students clinical experience in the practice of law and the profession's public service tradition.

Featured Activities

June 3, 2010

CLC Aids Three Indiana Groups in Litigation

June 3, 2010

The Conservation Law Center is representing three Indiana environmental groups in litigation filed in April by the Indiana-Kentucky Electric Corporation (IKEC), the operators of the Clifty Creek power station in southern Indiana. The groups -- Save The Valley, Hoosier Environmental Council, and Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana -- are defending a 2005 opinion by the Indiana Court of Appeals that non-profit corporations and other organizations can rely on the doctrine of "associational standing" to challenge actions of state agencies when, for example, they issue the permits corporations need to discharge pollution into the environment. "Associational standing" is well-established in the federal court system and in most states and is critical for environmental organizations' watchdog role, but IKEC is fighting to overturn the Court of Appeals' decision that brought Indiana into line with the majority rule.

The procedural posture of the litigation also is highly unusual. Back in 2002, the groups challenged IKEC's coal ash waste permit issued by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management because of the risk of harmful chemicals leaching from the coal waste to the groundwater. The administrative judge decided that the groups could present their case to the tribunal because they had "associational standing." IKEC immediately appealed that ruling and the issue went up to the Indiana Court of Appeals, where in 2005 IKEC lost; the appeals court decided that the environmental groups were entitled to challenge the coal ash permit. After remand back to the agency and more years of highly technical litigation in the tribunal, IKEC actually won; it successfully defended its permit. Even so, IKEC took the unusual step of appealing that agency decision in its favor, seeking yet one more time to reach back and challenge the administrative judge's "associational standing" decision. The case is expected to be on the Clinic's docket throughout the summer and into the fall semester.

Ensuring Responsible and Environmentally Sensitive Development of Renewable Energy

March 21, 2010

Renewable energy sources such as wind and solar are critical components of our national strategy to fend off climate change, reduce pollution, and promote energy independence. However, renewable energy development does not come without potentially serious environmental impacts, especially to wildlife. In an attempt to help ensure that renewable energy is developed in an environmentally sensitive manner with minimal impacts to wildlife, CLC attorneys and Clinic interns continue to track and comment on permitting and NEPA processes for proposed renewable energy facilities where there is federal involvement. The CLC recently submitted formal comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding a proposed wind energy facility in Ohio that has the potential to harm endangered Indiana bats.

Animal Migration Seminar

March 21, 2010

CLC attorneys and Clinic interns are participating in the second semester of a year-long series of interdisciplinary seminars on protecting animal migrations, an effort initiated by the environmental program of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Featured guests in 2009 were Holly Doremus, professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley; David Wilcove, professor at Princeton and expert on conservation; Paul Cryan, bat expert with the USGS in Colorado; and Peter Marra, bird migration expert at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. This semester the seminar will feature Joanne Vining, professor at the University of Illinois and expert in conservation psychology, and Kathleen Miller, an economist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and expert in climate change impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation.

Ballast Water Treatment Regulations

February 17, 2010

CLC attorneys and Clinic interns advised long-standing client, Great Lakes United, and four other conservation groups in preparing comments on the U.S. Coast Guard's ballast water rulemaking (docket number USCG-2001-10486). The dangers that ballast water poses for the introduction of aquatic invasive species have been recognized for well over a century. With the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959, ocean vessels have become the main way that invasive species, such as the zebra mussel and round goby, have been introduced into the Great Lakes, costing millions of dollars in damage and taking a tremendous toll on the environment.

The detailed comments recognized the rule's strides to ensure ballast water discharges to U.S. waters, including the Great Lakes, no longer introduce aquatic invasive species. However, the comments also note significant weaknesses in the proposed rule. The comments call on the Coast Guard to: strengthen the phase one (first level) standards; shorten the timelines for implementation; tighten the technology practicability review process; verify treatment and technologies will work in a truly freshwater system; address the whole ship, including invasive species carried on anchors, anchor chains, and hulls; and establish a rigorous monitoring and enforcement program for compliance with the new regulations.

CAFO Rulemaking

January 11, 2010

Indiana's Hoosier Environmental Council has asked for CLC's help in advancing their interests in an upcoming rulemaking that will change the way Confined Animal Feeding Operations -- or factory farms -- are regulated. CLC attorneys and Clinic interns will participate in this administrative law process to ensure that the new CAFO regulations adequately protect streams and lakes from pollution.

Animal Migration Seminar and Publication

January 11, 2010

The CLC attorneys and Clinic interns will be participating in the second semester of a year-long series of interdisciplinary seminars on protecting animal migrations, an effort initiated by the environmental program of the Indiana University Maurer School of Law and the School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Featured guests in 2009 were Holly Doremus, professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley; David Wilcove, professor at Princeton and expert on conservation; Paul Cryan, bat expert with the USGS in Colorado; and Peter Marra, bird migration expert at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. Prior to the start of the seminar series, Jeff co-authored a paper with Professor Robert Fischman titled "The Legal Challenge of Protecting Animal Migrations as Phenomena of Abundance" which is currently in press.

Antidegradation Rulemaking

January 7, 2009

CLC attorneys and Clinic interns continue the CLC's multiyear involvement in Indiana's antidegradation rulemaking on behalf of client Alliance for the Great Lakes. The rulemaking is required under the Clean Water Act. After more than a year of stakeholder working groups and intense negotiations over the language of the rule, the draft rule issued by the agency is still unlikely to be approved by USEPA. CLC attorneys and interns are currently writing comments in response to the official draft regulations recently issued by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management.

Prioritization for Federal Conservation Funds

January 3, 2010

We have been asked to advise CEAP (Conservation Effects Assessment Project) -- a multi-agency effort to quantify the environmental benefits of USDA-funded conservation programs -- on a geographic prioritization strategy for identifying which watersheds are the best candidates for conservation dollars.

CLC Attorneys Present at LTA Rally

October 22, 2009

In mid-October, CLC attorneys presented workshops at the annual national meeting of the Land Trust Alliance in Portland, Oregon. Bill co-presented the workshop "Conservation Easements in a Changing World - Balancing Flexibility with Permanence." Bill, Andrea, and Jeff, along with Christian Freitag, executive director of our long-standing client Sycamore Land Trust, presented the workshop "Drafting Working Landscape Conservation Easements."

CLC Helps Friends of Patoka River Incorporate

October 2, 2009

With the legal assistance of CLC attorneys and Clinic interns, Friends of the Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge incorporated as a not-for-profit organization. The Friends' mission is to educate the public about the Patoka River NWF, located in southern Indiana near Oakland City, and to help protect its precious resources.