Last fall, student attorneys in the Environmental Law Clinic continued environmental justice work by engaging in new, complex litigation and building on past progress.
Those matters include:
In 2024, Clinic attorneys submitted a supplemental Title VI Civil Rights complaint to the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) concerning Amtrak’s project to build a new train tunnel beneath Baltimore Environmental Justice communities. The FRA has failed to respond to the complaint, and project construction and demolition has begun causing harm to residents. This semester, student attorneys interviewed residents from several Baltimore communities to understand their lived experiences. The harms they have suffered include dangerous traffic patterns and pedestrian hazards caused by construction, recurring power outages, and tainted water that runs brown when available and is often shut off by Amtrak without notice, as well as an influx of rats and exposure to harmful dust caused by ongoing demolition. The Clinic plans to work with the communities this spring and determine what other legal options the residents may have.
The Clinic continued is multi-year effort to assist an Environmental Justice community in Howard County that has been subjected to over 20 years of blasting from a neighboring quarry. Student attorneys wrote complaints to the county Department of Planning and zoning on behalf of over 30 residents. They also met with county-elected officials and agency staff pressing the claims of the residents.
In a matter of national importance, student attorneys on behalf of a local climate group filed a motion to intervene in support of Maryland Department of the Environment’s decision to issue an air pollution permit to US Wind allowing it to construct an offshore wind project that would generate electricity for thousands of Maryland residents. Student attorneys filed an opening memorandum, a reply memorandum, and a response to motion to strike in Worcester County Circuit Court. Argument on the petition is scheduled for March 2026.
Student attorneys submitted individual comments opposing US EPA’s decision to withdraw its prior finding that emission from motor vehicles contribute to climate change and constitute and endangerment to public health and welfare.
On behalf of three residents who are unable to pay for legal representation, student attorneys filed a Petition for Judicial Review, an opening memorandum in support, and a reply brief, and presented oral argument for relief in Howard County Circuit Court. The petitioners seek to modify an air pollution permit issued by the Maryland Department of Environment to WR Grace allowing it to operate a plastics pyrolysis research and development facility near their homes.
The Clinic continued its representation of a local riverkeeper before the Maryland Public Service Commission in opposition to the Maryland Piedmont Reliability Project; a powerline that would cut a swath across Maryland. Student attorneys coordinated with attorneys representing property owners and NGOs and submitted data requests (discovery) to Public Service Enterprise Group, a New Jersey corporation. The company has sought a certificate of public convenience from the Commission. Students also visited the Gunpowder River and a local farmer’s property to see firsthand where the power line would run and the natural resources it would harm.
Student attorneys continued to assist a Pennsylvania riverkeeper organization and a national environmental non-profit organization in their efforts to bring legal action against the Commonwealth premised upon the state Environmental Rights Amendment. The action would seek the repeal of a state law prohibiting the state environmental agency from requiring farms to fence polluting livestock out of streams.
Student attorneys canvassed Maryland environmental organizations and citizen groups about the need for submitting a petition to the Maryland Department of the Environment seeking the promulgation of pollution regulations that would protect Environmental Justice communities.
Clinic attorneys worked with a national environmental organization to review proposed Clean Water Act (CWA) pollution discharge permits for privately owned wastewater treatment plants. Comments were submitted objecting to the level of control required by the new permittee as contrary to the CWA.
Last, clinic attorneys participated with students in the Clean Water Act seminar and the Maryland Environmental Law Society on a boat trip with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The cruise toured Baltimore Harbor and the Patapsco River including a visit to the Patapsco Wastewater Treatment Plant outfall and Sparrows Point at the mouth of the river. The tour passed the remnants of the Key Bridge which was under construction after being struck by a freighter in March 2024. Participants all experienced the sight and smell of the “pistachio tide” caused by decaying algae that lingered in the harbor for weeks.