River

Animal Rights, Free Speech Groups File Lawsuit Challenging Iowa’s Ag Whistleblower Law

Listen to the entire show – River to River This week, animal rights and free speech organizations filed a lawsuit against the State of Iowa that challenges a state law from 2012, often referred to as Iowa’s ag-gag law or ag-whistleblower law. The law made it illegal to get a job at a livestock farm through misrepresentation in order to conduct an undercover animal cruelty investigation. The …


Flandreau Tribe, State, Clash in Court

The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe has opened yet another front against the state of South Dakota in its bid to exert more independence over state government. The tribe filed a lawsuit against the state in federal court challenging the state’s interpretation that contractors working on an expansion of the Royal River Casino are required to pay contractors excise tax to the state. The lawsuit alleges that the state’s imposition of the tax “subjects the tribe to an intrusion into tribal sovereignty within its reservation.” The lawsuit also argues that the state is …


Lawsuit Challenges Army Corps ACF Update

A revised U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water plan for the Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin is being challenged by environmental groups that say the Sunshine State is again being cheated out of its fair share of the river system’s flow. Earthjustice on Thursday filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on behalf of the National Wildlife Federation, Florida Wildlife Federation and the Apalachicola Riverkeeper claiming the Army Corps failed to …


BNSF, Watchdogs Settle Coal Dust Lawsuit

SEATTLE (AP) – BNSF Railway and seven environmental groups in Washington and Oregon have settled a lawsuit saying that coal spilled from trains pollutes waterways in Washington state. BNSF admits no wrongdoing in the settlement finalized Friday. The plaintiffs had argued that coal spilled from open-topped train cars is polluting the Columbia River and other waterways in the Pacific Northwest.



Oklahoma AG and EPA Pick Pruitt Stalled Pollution Lawsuit After Contributions From Poultry Industry

President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to run the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, walked back a legal fight to clean up rivers polluted by chicken manure after accepting tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions linked to the poultry industry, campaign and court records show. A report by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group …



Navajo Nation Announces Lawsuit Against EPA for ‘unprecedented’ Gold King Mine ‘disaster’

The Navajo Nation announced Monday plans to file a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency over damage stemming from last year’s Gold King Mine spill, calling it an “unprecedented environmental disaster.” The New Mexico-based nation is scheduled to hold a press conference Tuesday on its reservation near the San Juan River, which was contaminated after an EPA-led crew accidentally …


Yet Another Lawsuit Filed Over Contaminated Drinking Water

Another lawsuit has been filed over the contaminated water from the West Morgan East Lawrence Water Authority. The lawsuit lists roughly 160 plaintiffs, all of them residents of Morgan or Lawrence Counties, and all of them customers of the West Morgan East Lawrence Water Authority. The defendants are 3M, the Dyneon Corporation, Daikin and the West Morgan East Lawrence Water …