What's Included This Week:
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Sign-on Deadline Extended to Friday, December 14:
Join 175+ Organizations Telling the EPA Not to Change Clean Water Act Rules!
Click here to add your organization to those telling the EPA: Maintain the existing Clean Water Act 404(c) rules to protect our water and wildlife from extremely damaging projects! If you have already sign on, please share this letter with people at other organizations!
We are asking WPN members and other organizations to sign on to the letter opposing the Trump Administration's proposed changes to Clean Water Act Section 404(c) rules. These proposed changes would unnecessarily and unlawfully restrict the use of the critical 404(c) tool for protecting the nation’s waters and wildlife from the most egregious actions.
Section 404(c) vetoes have been instrumental for the WPN and many organizations to stop environmentally disastrous projects, such as the Yazoo Pumps Flood Control Project in Mississippi and the Spruce No. 1 Surface Coal Mine in West Virginia. A proposed 404(c) action, if finalized, would impose important restrictions on the Pebble Mine in Bristol Bay Alaska to protect habitat that supports the largest salmon fishery on earth.
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Army Corps Releases Its Civil Works Fiscal Year 2019 Work Plan
In late November, the US Army Corps of Engineers sent to Congress its Fiscal Year 2019 (FY 19) Work Plan for the Corps Civil Works program. The Energy-Water Appropriations Act, which became law in September,4) appropriated nearly $7 billion to the Corps Civil Works program for FY 19. House Report 115-929, which accompanied the Energy-Water Appropriations Act, allocated about $4.5 billion of that total to specific Civil Works programs, projects and activities (PPA). The newly released Civil Works FY 19 Work Plan lists the Corps' allocation of another $2 billion of the $7 billion total to specific PPAs. The remaining FY 19 Civil Works appropriations are set to go toward the program's Expenses, Regulatory, Flood Control and Coastal Emergencies (FCCE), and Office of the Assistant Secretary accounts.
Click below to read the Civil Works Work Plan sections, which detail how much is allocated to specific Civil Works programs, projects and activities for FY 19:
Separately, the Corps published its Fiscal Year 2018 Civil Works Annual Financial Report on November 16. 2018. Click here to read it.
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Recent Resources
- Cap and Run: Toxic Coal Ash Left Behind by Big Polluters Threatens Illinois Water, a report by Environmental Integrity Project and WPN members Earthjustice, Prairie Rivers Network, and Sierra Club. See the fact sheet here, and read Prairie River Network's press release here.
- The Ocean’s Wilderness Areas Are Smaller Than You Think—and They’re Disappearing Fast, a recent Scientific American article.
- Chemical Releases Associated with Floods, a leaflet from the World Health Organization, from their report, Chemical releases caused by natural hazard events and disasters.
- The Growing Threat of Urban Flooding: A National Challenge 2018, which reports the results of a study on the extent, consequences, and potential mitigating activities for urban flooding in the United States.
- Building Urban Resilience with Nature: A Practitioner's Guide to Action, a guide from Earth Economics and 100 Resilient Cities, including sections on natural infrastructure and ecosystem health.
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Army Corps Public Notices, Comment Periods, and Upcoming Meetings
Environmental Impact Statements; Availability, etc.: Haile Gold Mine in Lancaster County, SC
Scheduled to be published December 4, 2018
Public Scoping Meeting (Thursday, December 6) and Comment Period (until January 10, 2019) for Collier County Coastal Storm Risk Management Feasibility Study, Florida
Published December 3, 2018
Withdrawal of the Notice of Intent To Prepare a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) in Cooperation With the North Carolina Department of Transportation and South Carolina Department of Transportation for Extending SC 31 (Carolina Bays Parkway), in Horry County, South Carolina, To Connect to US 17, in Brunswick County, North Carolina
Published November 30, 2018
Notice of Availability of the Record of Decision for the Final Missouri River Recovery Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement
Published November 30, 2018
Combined NEPA Public Scoping Meeting (tomorrow, December 5) for Miami-Dade Back Bay and Miami-Dade County Coastal Storm Risk Management Feasibility Studies, Florida
Published November 29, 2018
Public Scoping Meetings (today, December 4) and Comment Period for the Florida Keys Coastal Storm Risk Management (CSRM) Feasibility Study
Published November 27, 2018
Public Scoping Meeting (December 12) for a Disposition Study for Locks and Dams on the Cape Fear River, North Carolina
Published November 26, 2018
Notice of Availability of the Great Lakes and Mississippi River Interbasin Study-Brandon Road Integrated Feasibility Study and Environmental Impact Statement-Will County, Illinois (until December 24)
Published November 26, 2018
Army Corps Seeks Comments for N.C. State Ports Authority Dredging Project, New Hanover County, North Carolina (until December 15)
Published November 15, 2018
Intent to Grant Exclusive License: Integrated Composite Construction Systems, LLC
Published November 7, 2018
Garden City Flood Risk Management Integrated Feasibility Study and Environmental Assessment Public Scoping Meeting and Comment Period, Idaho (until December 16)
Published November 1, 2018
New York and New Jersey Harbor Anchorages General Reevaluation Study NEPA Scoping Meeting and Public Comment Period (until December 10)
Published November 1, 2018
Joint Notice of Availability for the Coastal Texas Protection and Restoration Study Draft Integrated Feasibility Report and Environmental Impact Statement and Comment Period (until January 9, 2019)
Published October 26, 2018
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