Cutting the Sacketts from Slack: How Relaxing the Clean Water Act forced Colorado to get Stricter

In response to the Supreme Court case Sackett v. EPA, 598 U.S. 651, 678 (2023), Colorado’s Governor Polis convened a task force to explore options to ensure Colorado’s waterways stayed protected from dredging and filling activities. The legislation’s intent is to ensure Colorado waters are protected from the repercussions of the Supreme Court’s ruling from Sackett.

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Combatting Abandoned Mines: Good Samaritan Remediation of Abandoned Hardrock Mines Act

The growth and dependency on the mining industry during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries was critical to the United States economy. As a result, mines spread across the country without much thought to mining practices or the corresponding consequences. Today, there are an estimated 140,000 abandoned hard rock mines, with 23,000 located in Colorado, and around 23,000 that may pose environmental concerns.

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Federal Environmental Justice Setbacks and the Impact on Colorado

The Environmental Justice Movement gained momentum in the late 1980s and early 1990s in response to a community in North Carolina being designated as the future site of a hazardous waste landfill riddled with PCB-laced waste. PCBs are a group of manmade chemicals that were used in industrial and commercial settings and were banned in 1979; yet, they do not break down easily in the environment. As a result, PCBs remain in the air, water, and soil, and likely are transported far from their point of origin.

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Draining the Swamp?

Situated along the Georgia-Florida border lies 438,000 acres of the largest blackwater swamp in North America and the largest National Wildlife Refuge in the eastern United States. This is the Okefenokee Swamp. This amazing ecosystem is home to a stunning array of biodiversity, including bald eagles, bobcats, black bears, about 13,000 alligators, and endangered species, including wood storks, indigo snakes, gopher tortoises, and red-cockaded woodpeckers. In addition, more than 850 species of plants, including cypress trees, are over 400 years old. Besides supporting a stunning array of wildlife, this ecosystem attracts 725,000 visitors a year, supports 750 jobs, and generates almost $65 million for the four counties surrounding the swamp. However, an Alabama-based mining company, Twin Pines, LLC, is seeking permits to mine 8,000 acres along the swamp's eastern edge.

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Blown Away: The Development of Offshore Wind in the U.S.

Renewable energy sources have existed for centuries but in recent decades, have become key to combatting climate change. Prioritizing energy sources with low carbon footprints is critical to managing and reversing temperature increases, water shortages, and other negative impacts that have resulted from generations of fossil fuel use. While wind has been instrumental to this energy transition, offshore wind has greater potential than traditional onshore wind due to the size difference of the turbines. Not only does offshore wind have higher energy capacity but can do so in a much smaller physical footprint than onshore wind. Though the European Union (EU) has been the front runner in offshore wind development, the United States (U.S.) has made tremendous progress over the past two decades with more growth on the horizon.

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The Perpetual Pollution Problem: Acid Mine Drainage in the Rocky Mountains

While driving west on I-70, there are views of beautiful trees, snow-capped mountains, and also piles of orange/yellow rock dispersed through the trees. These orange scars on Colorado’s hillsides are abandoned hard rock mines and the piles of tailings left behind. Tailings are the byproduct of mines that turn an orange hue over time as they are exposed to the elements. Colorado has nearly 23,000 inactive and abandoned mines out of an estimated 150,000 abandoned mines in the United States. These mines not only pose risks for the curious off-trail hiker who could fall into a collapsed mine, but they also pose the greatest threat to Colorado water quality through the perpetual pollution of acid mine drainage

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The Indoor Air We Breathe

Some pollution is easy to see; plastic waste floating in the ocean or the grey smog that covers city skylines. However, there is a lot of pollution that the everyday American is exposed to that can’t be seen with the naked eye. There is contamination in our food, water, and  air. There seems to be more conversation around water contamination with PFAs or the pesticides used on our vegetables, but what about what we breathe each day inside our homes? Indoor air quality can be a threat to our health, and environmentalists and lawyers continue to look for ways to limit a person's exposure to this everyday pollution.

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Feeding the Crisis: The Buried Dangers of Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations

Far removed from the traditional livestock practices of the old west, industrial-like Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) now dominate U.S. livestock production. These CAFOs, commonly referred to as factory farms, are operations in which: (1) animals are kept and raised in confined situations; (2) animals, feed, manure and urine, dead animals, and production operations are maintained on a small land area; and (3) no grazing is allowed; feed is brought to the animals.

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Kudzu: A Story Ripening on the Vine

 The usual biodiversity hotspots in the United States are thought to be Hawai’i, the Rocky Mountains, and maybe even Alaska; however, conservation biologists are looking closer at the Southeastern United States, describing it as one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots. E.O. Wilson reported that the central Gulf Coast states “harbor the most diversity of any part of Eastern North America and probably any part of North America.”

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The Circular Production Model: Sweden’s Approach to Slowing Fast-Fashion

Known for its commitment to sustainability, Sweden has consistently ranked among the top 10 countries globally for exceptional environmental performance for over a decade. Being the first country in the world to pass an environmental protection act in 1967 and host the first ever UN Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, Sweden was a pioneer in sparking conversation related to the treatment and conservation of the environment.

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Reviving River Otters: How Human Intervention has led to a Comeback of these Keystone Species

During the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, river otters and other Rocky Mountain wildlife faced severe challenges because of the rapid increase in industrialization and development in the region. Mining, agriculture, and ranching significantly polluted and destroyed the clean waterways that otters and their prey, including fish, crustaceans, and amphibians relied on.

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The PFAS Pollution Problem

Chemicals have been incorporated into daily life as they serve many advantageous uses. Over time, and with rapid technological advances, it is difficult to identify items in our day-to-day lives that do not utilize or benefit from the addition of chemicals. Despite their advantages, these chemicals can pose serious hazardous risks that consumers are unaware of.

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Adaptive Reuse of Empty Office Space

Adaptive reuse is the process of modifying an existing building to serve new uses. This form of redevelopment presents an exciting opportunity to adapt existing properties to meet the current needs of the community. Adaptive reuse could promote sustainability in Denver by redeveloping empty office space as housing.

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Mitigation Banking Under Section 404 of CWA

The loss of wetlands within the continental United States is not a new phenomenon; still, little has been done to slow the progressive loss of wetland habitats successfully. Since the 1780s, the continental United States has lost nearly 50% of its wetlands, and since 2009, the rate of wetland loss has increased by another 50%. Much of this historical loss was due, in part, to a misunderstanding of the significant roles wetlands play in filtering pollution, providing habitat for numerous plant and animal species, and providing natural flood control.

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