So you think you’ve seen accretion (the growth of new land on littoral or riparian property)? Check out the above video (also here), showing the latest dramatic lava flow on the Big Island of Hawaii. Now that’s accretion.
Is there a legal angle to this? Of course there is. To start you off
The old adage is that a waterway is “navigable” for purposes of federal law if it is deep enough to float a Supreme Court opinion. Seriously, though, the less cheeky test of navigability is whether a waterway is capable of being used in its natural state as an avenue of commerce, meaning whether it was
The EPA has filed its merits brief in Sackett v. EPA, No. 10-1062, the case in which Idaho property owners are asserting their right to challenge the agency’s assertion via a “compliance order” that a portion of their land are “wetlands” and that they violated the Clean Water Act.
The EPA’s brief asserts that
Although the focus of this blog is land use and related topics, our practice involves more than that — we also take appeals in other areas of law presenting unsettled or untested questions. Here’s the latest example, a case that asks what standards govern the Family Court’s evaluation of an application for a civil TRO
A reminder: on Tuesday, November 1, 2011, from noon to 1:00 p.m., I’ll be making a presentation to the Natural Resources Section of the Hawaii State Bar Association about the case currently pending in the U.S. Supreme Court about the ability of property owners to challenge a jurisdictional determination by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
“Yosemite,” according to California Place Names, Erwin Gudde’s seminal work on the origins of (surprise) California place names, means “they are killers.” It was “[e]vidently a name given to the Indians of the valley by those outside it.”
I raise this historical tidbit because I must admit to feeling a little like “those outside
The City of Hayward, California, was concerned that residential rentals within its borders were “decent, safe, and sanitary,” and by ordinance required the owners or tenants of such units to allow city officials to inspect them. If an owner or tenant refused, the “Enforcement Official” was authorized to procure an “inspection warrant” and levy a
The Natural Resources Section of the Hawaii State Bar Association has kindly asked me to speak to its members at their monthly lunch meeting, next Tuesday, November 1, 2011, from noon to 1:00 p.m. at the HSBA conference room, located on the 10th floor of Alakea Corporate Tower, 1100 Alakea Street.
I’ll be discussing the case
Yes, you read that right.
Yesterday, we posted most of the amici briefs in Sackett v. EPA, No. 10-1062, the case in which Idaho property owners are asserting their right to challenge the EPA’s assertion that a portion of their land are “wetlands.” But we saved one for a separate post, because it was
Last week, the petitioners filed their merits brief in Sackett v. EPA, No. 10-1062, the case in which Idaho property owners are asserting their right to challenge the EPA’s assertion that a portion of their land are “wetlands.”
A multitude of amicus briefs have been filed to support the Sackett’s arguments. We haven’t had
