A Testament to Our Predecessors, and Hopefully Our Descendants: The Future of New York’s Green Amendment Air rife with rich oxygen and shallow seas—warm bodies teeming with plankton—harmonized over millennia to create the lush, black soil that will come to be known as the South’s Black Belt, 139 million years later.1 Like these pioneering organisms, we … Continued

Facts Plaintiff property owner brought action against County of Suffolk (the county), State of New York (the state), and Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) claiming he owned underwater lots in fee simple and was not required to obtain a permit from the county or DEC to cultivate and harvest any type of shellfish by any … Continued

Facts This appeal before the Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division, First Department (appellate court) involves litigation between two neighboring New York City property owners over allegedly negligent and illegal use of water-removal pumps during major flooding events.1 Kenneth Rosenblum and fellow owners of a Manhattan apartment building (plaintiff-appellants) brought an action against the owners … Continued

Facts In 2014, respondent Greenidge Generation LLC (Greenidge) purchased an electric generating facility in the respondent Town of Torrey.1 The plant, which uses water from Seneca Lake to cool turbines and discharges heated water back into Seneca Lake, began operating in March 2017.2 In June 2020, Greenidge sought approval from respondent Town of Torrey Planning Board to … Continued

Facts New York voters approved the Green Amendment ballot initiative in 2021, enshrining in the state constitution new rights: “[e]ach person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.”1 This case—in which more than 200 residents living near a 300-acre landfill claim that the state government, City of New York municipal … Continued

Facts The Kingstonian Project (the project) was a plan to redevelop parts of the City of Kingston in Ulster County, New York.1 The project would demolish an outdoor parking lot and a parking garage that was no longer in use in the Kingston Stockade Historic District (KSHD) as well as a redevelopment of 2.5 acres of … Continued

Facts In 2019 and 2020, the United States Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) classified the openings of the Bonnet Carré Spillway (spillway) as emergencies, which allowed the Corps to bypass a formal consultation with the NMFS and FWS (collectively, the … Continued

Facts This case concerns the rules and regulations surrounding the Klamath river water supply.1 The cause of action centers on an order issued by the Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD) (hereinafter, the order).2 The Upper Klamath Lake (UKL) is home to two endangered fish, the shortnose sucker and the Lost River sucker, and allows water to flow … Continued

Rancho Vista Del Mar v. United States, 2022 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206277 (D.D.C. Nov. 14, 2022) Facts In 2019, former President Donald Trump declared a national emergency that allowed the United States to construct a wall along the southern border of the United States. This emergency centered on the “influx” of “illegal immigrants” coming into … Continued

In recent years, a number of chemicals that have been largely unregulated have generated considerable concern, including at existing or prospective Superfund sites. Of intense and growing concern is a group of compounds known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). Perhaps most common among these is perfluoroctanoic acid (PFOA), which was used to make non-stick … Continued