Environment
Examples and Resources
International Dark-Sky Association (IDA)
The goals of this Tucson, Arizona, based organization are to stop “the adverse environmental impact on dark skies by building awareness of the problem of light pollution and of the solutions, and to educate on the value and effectiveness of quality nighttime lighting.”
K-Mart Corporation v. City of Westlake, OH, 1997
This court case upholds the importance of a Comprehensive Plan, and shows than even on commercially zoned land, a city can reject a plan for well-documented reasons. In this case, one of the reasons was an inadequate storm water plan. That was enough to deny the project, along with other reasons.…
Wal-Mart Stores v. The Vermont Environmental Board, 1996
Wal-Mart appealed a decision by the Environmental Board that declined a Wal-Mart application for St. Alban’s, Vermont, arguing that the state should not have considered the store’s potential adverse impacts on town tax revenues, and other factors as part of
Bakersfield Citizens for Local Control v. City of Bakersfield and Panama 99 Properties (2004)
Bakersfield Citizens for Local Control (BCLC) challenged the development of two retail shopping centers in the southwestern portion of the City of Bakersfield, alleging violations of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The shopping centers, when completed, would create a combined total…
Effectiveness of Compensatory Wetland Mitigation in Massachusetts
Common to many big box plans to build on or near wetland areas is the promise to create a man-made version of a natural eco-system. Although there are many companies that are willing to take Wal-Mart’s money, appear before town boards, and speak persuasively to local officials about their ability…
Wetlands, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Wal-Mart often submits a plan that calls for wetlands to be destroyed, and replicated somewhere else. Citizens groups should insist that whatever design has been submitted, it be reworked to avoid the wetland area completely. It may also be necessary for the citizens group to either hire a hydrologist…
The U.S. Congress passed the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972. As amended in 1977, this law became commonly known as the Clean Water Act (CWA). The Act established the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States. The Clean Water…
Rockville Concerned Citizens For Responsible Development (2004)
Water-related issues can sink a Wal-Mart proposal. In Vernon, Connecticut, for example, an 186,000 s.f. Wal-Mart supercenter was defeated in part due to water-related issues. The Inland Wetlands Commission in that town determined that the supercenter would cause unreasonable pollution to the area…
Every Wal-Mart project must propose a stormwater management system designed to maintain quality and quantity of stormwater runoff to pre-development levels. These projects often have stormwater ponds, which is a land depression created for the detention or retention of stormwater runoff. The goal…
Wal-Mart has a bad track record with the EPA regarding the company’s ability to protect watershed areas. In 2001, the corporation paid a $1 million settlement for stormwater violations at 17 sites across the country. Follow-up inspections at 24 stores revealed that the company continued to discharge…
