SELC Overview and Case Studies

Question 1

What does SELC stand for?

Answer 1

southern environmental law center

Question 2

What is the mission of SELC?

Answer 2

protect basic right to clean air, clean water, and livable climate

Question 3

What is Clean Water Act?

Answer 3

• nobody is allowed to discharge pollution into water of USA without permit (limits pollutants)

Question 4

What is the CWA Citizen suit against Atlanta?

Answer 4

• Chattahoochee Riverkeeper found high E. coli in river
• waste water treatment plant source
• CRK sued Atlanta for CWA violations
• case still pending, changes have been made to facility but still violating permit

Question 5

What happened with PFAS along Pittard Road?

Answer 5

• A lot of people were getting sick within the community, continuous complaints made about the well water (largely black community)
• Old DuPont Facility had sprayed contaminated waste onto surrounding land
• no limits on PFAS in drinking water wells
• looked at samples from 10 wells and saw PFAS levels higher than limits for reg. drinking water systems
• houses in community hooked up to public water systems at no cost
• while EPA was doing some things, since election they have not been able to get in contact with EPA (DEI cuts)

Question 6

What happened with Drilling in the Conecuh NF?

Answer 6

• Trump issues EO directing agencies to waive CAA protections, skirt around CWA and ESA, and speed up permitting and enviro. review processes to push through fossil fuel energy projects, including on federal lands
• oil and gas drilling is done in Conecuh nat. forest, but a proposal was put out to either open entire Conecuh NF to oil and gas drilling or have none
• Conecuh is home to a lot of endangered/endemic species
• Since forest is already open to drilling, worst they can do is keep it as is. Best case scenario is it ends outright