Cases
The Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic works on a range of state, regional, and national environmental issues concentrated in four program areas: Water, Coal & Climate, Biodiversity, and Healthy Communities. The following is a brief overview of our work in each program area, including examples of some of our most recent cases and projects.
Water Program
The Environmental and Natural Resources Law Clinic is working on a range of cases and projects that seek to conserve surface waters and aquatic ecosystems and restore them to a clean and healthy state, including Lake Champlain, the Connecticut River, the Mystic River, and other cherished surface waters. The Clinic is also actively engaged in several cases and projects aimed at protecting groundwater for the benefit of human communities who use these precious resources for drinking water, as well as for natural systems that are dependent upon these subsurface reservoirs. Some of the threats to water resources that the Clinic is addressing include toxic pollution from mineral processing operations, natural gas production, and scrap metal recycling activities, as well as nutrient pollution emanating from sewage treatment facilities and factory farms. The following are a few examples of the Clinic's work in the Water & Justice Program:
Enforcing Stormwater Requirements to Protect the Mystic River in Boston: In conjunction with the Conservation Law Foundation and the La Communidad community group, the Clinic has helped develop and initiate a series of lawsuits.
Preventing Groundwater Pollution in Vermont: Challenging Omya, Inc. to properly dispose of its solid waste in accordance with Vermont and federal solid waste law.
Protecting Vermont’s Water Quality: Urging the United States Environmental Protection Agency to either assume control of Vermont’s Clean Water Act program, or to require Vermont to properly administer the Act.
Vermont Yankee: Urging the State of Vermont to protect the Connecticut River by imposing adequate controls on Vermont Yankee's thermal discharge and cooling water intake structure.
Coal & Climate Program
The Clinic's Coal & Climate Program offers student clinicians the chance to work on cutting edge issues relating to global climate change, using a variety of legal tools and strategies. Much of the Clinic's work involves the coal industry because of its overwhelming contribution to the climate crisis, in addition to its harmful impacts on human health and the environment. The following are a few examples of the Clinic's work in the Coal & Climate Program:
Preventing New Coal-Fired Power Plant and Harmful Minefilling Activities in Pennsylvania: The Clinic has been working with the Environmental Integrity Project and Residents Against the Power Plant on coal issues in western Pennsylvania.
Coal and Coal Ash: The EPA is in the process of considering landmark regulation that might, for the first time, regulate coal combustion waste as hazardous waste under RCRA.
Protecting Montana Citizens and Ranchers from Harmful Effects of New Coal Mining Activities: On behalf of the Northern Plains Resource Council and National Wildlife Federation, the Clinic has filed a lawsuit against the State of Montana and Arch Coal, Inc.
Challenging EPA to Promulgate Greenhouse Gas Controls for the Nitric Acid Industry: Over the past few years, EPA has taken remarkable steps to begin regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act.
Biodiversity Program
Since its inception, the Clinic has been devoted to conserving endangered species, biodiversity, healthy ecosystems, and the natural beauty of wild places for their own sake and for benefit of current and future generations. These Clinic is working hard to protect these irreplaceable resources from a wide array of human-induced threats, including climate change, industrial activities, oil and gas production, dams, and government programs that encourage rapid development without adequate attention to the environmental consequences. The following are a few examples of the Clinic's work in the Biodiversity Program:
Protecting Puerto Rico's Rich Biodiversity from Proposed Via Verde Natural Gas Pipeline: Fighting to protect over 300 of acres of wetlands, numerous streams and surface waters, protected natural reserves, unique limestone karst formations, ancient archaeological sites, and more than 40 federally listed endangered species
Protecting the Gray Wolf in the Northeast: Requiring the United States to maintain Endangered Species Act protections for the gray wolf.
Saving Passamaquoddy Bay: Challenging the federal government’s failure to properly consider the cultural, spiritual, and environmental impacts of a proposed liquefied natural gas terminal on the Passamaquoddy Tribe’s Pleasant Point Reservation.
Protecting the Bicknell's Thrush and Other Species Threatened by Climate Change: On behalf of the Center for Biological Diversity, student clinicians thoroughly researched the legal and scientific basis for listing the Bicknell's Thrush under the Endangered Species Act.
Protecting Endangered Atlantic Salmon from the Harmful Impacts of Dams in Maine: The Clinic has been working with the Center for Biological Diversity to explore options for protecting endangered Atlantic Salmon from the devastating effect of dams in Maine.
Healthy Communities Program
A key component of the Healthy Communities Program is the Clinic's Factory Farm Tax Protest project. This project helps people who live near factory farms receive fair property tax assessments that account for the negative spillover effects of factory farms, including unhealthy air emissions, water contamination, noxious odors, and diminished quality of life. The hope is that neighbors can reduce their tax burdens to more accurately reflect their lower property values, and that state and local governments will be more likely to consider the true costs of factory farms when making relevant policy decisions. Since 2007, the Clinic has been developing state-specific property tax appeal guides for some of the highest priority CAFO states in the nation and has recently completed a tax appeal guide for Vermont. These guides as well as other resources the Clinic has developed are available on www.factoryfarmtaxprotest.org. The Clinic is also working to facilitate communication among project participants, including attorneys, activists, and community members in various states.
Another important component of the Clinic's Healthy Communities Program is its Partnership for Justice with Toxics Action Center, a non-profit advocacy group devoted to helping local communities throughout northern New England address the harmful effects of contaminated sites and polluting facilities in their neighborhoods. Through this program, the Clinic helps local community groups navigate complex permitting processes and agency proceedings, gives them legal advice regarding the various options available to them, and helps lay the groundwork for broader legislative and regulatory reforms necessary to address the problems they are facing. Toxics Action Center complements this work by assisting with community organizing, political campaigns, legislative advocacy, fundraising, media strategies, and other assistance critical to building the capacity of communities to engage in effective environmental advocacy. The following are a few examples of recent projects undertaken as part of the Partnership for Justice:
Helping Neighbors of Factory Farms: Providing tools to help people who live near factory farms challenge their property tax assessments.
Developing Better Controls on Polluting Junkyards in Vermont: In Milton, Vermont, ABC Metals has illegally operated a polluting junkyard for several decades.
Helping Vermont Community Address Lead Pollution Threats from Shooting Range: A residential neighborhood in Williston, Vermont abuts a shooting range that has used lead shot for nearly four decades.
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