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BALTIMORE, MD – Attorney General Anthony G. Brown joined a coalition of 11 attorneys general in an amicus brief filed today before the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing the federal government must make informed decisions about how to store, treat, and dispose of hazardous waste.
The case, Department of the Air Force v. Prutehi Guåhan, concerns whether the federal government needs to conduct environmental impact reviews of major projects under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) before it seeks a permit to dispose of hazardous waste. The brief argues that NEPA reviews in conjunction with hazardous waste disposal are valuable for Maryland.
In this case, the Court was asked to decide whether the Air Force can destroy munitions on a beach in Guam without doing an environmental impact review under NEPA. The federal government argues that it does not need to do a NEPA review because it already completed a permit application under a different federal law, the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). However, RCRA considers a narrower set of environmental concerns than NEPA review and occurs at a different stage in the process.
NEPA requires the federal government to analyze environmental impacts before it takes an action requiring a permit to dispose of hazardous waste, while the RCRA permit process narrowly evaluates only the government’s chosen waste disposal action. NEPA also requires public input before the federal government’s decision is made, ensuring that communities know about the action the government is planning and have input into that decision. NEPA analysis requires the federal government to study alternatives that could be less harmful to the environment, whereas RCRA permits do not require studying alternatives. Without NEPA reviews, states and communities would be left in the dark about crucial decisions that impact them.
In filing the brief, Attorney General Brown was joined by the attorneys general of Colorado, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, and Washington.
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