Gulf Restoration Network

MMS Files Documents in Support of New Drilling Permits Issued After Spill
The government must support its agency decisions with findings of fact derived from a administrative record. This “administrative record” underlies MMS decisions to approve more deepwater exploratory wells in GoM subsequent to the BP Oil Spill. In this post, you can download the government’s Table of Contents. Contact Waltzer & Wiygul if you wish any [...]

Pointe Au Chien – Cut Up, Now Polluted
FROM SURGE TO OIL… AN ENDANGERED PEOPLE by Joel Waltzer and Patty Ferguson, tribal lawyers, Pointe Au Chien Indian Tribe Much of southeast Louisiana’s remaining Native Americans reside in two centuries old communities in the southern-most ends of bayous running to the coast in Terrebonne and Lafourche Parishes. The people of Pointe Au Chien and [...]

BP Spill Target of Citizen Clean Water Lawsuit
Three environmental groups today said that they will use the citizen enforcement provision of the federal Clean Water Act to sue BP in federal court in New Orleans to force a more effective response to the ongoing oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

Response: Clean Water Act Notice of Intent to Sue
GRN, LEAN and Env. Amer.’s Notice of Intent to sue under Clean Water Act (CWA) for cessation of spill, full removal from water.
Clean Water Act case against BP announced as legal scrutiny mounts
A trio of environmental groups has formally notified BP that they are preparing to sue the oil giant for allegedly violating the Clean Water Act. Their planned lawsuit is another sign that scrutiny of the oil gusher under environmental law is increasing even as efforts to contain the ongoing spill are in progress.

Interior Sued Over BP Regulatory Waivers
(National Law Journal) – A group of conservationists and fishermen have a new target: Interior’s Minerals Management Service. Earthjustice and Waltzer & Wiygul filed suit in federal court for the Gulf Restoration Network and Sierra Club, charging that the agency violated federal law by exempting oil companies from disclosing blowout and worst-case spill scenarios before approving their offshore drilling plans.