March 29, 2024
A Minnesota federal judge on Friday shot down a suit by two Native American tribes accusing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of allowing the state to adopt less protective water quality standards that could harm their reservations' wildlife and crops.
September 08, 2023
Two Indigenous tribes' allegation that their Minnesota federal court lawsuit over updated state water quality standards does not directly challenge those standards' protection of industrial and agricultural water uses is "fatal" to their case, Minnesota regulators told a federal judge in the state.
August 03, 2023
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Minnesota regulators are sowing confusion over two Native American tribes' challenge to new water quality standards in the state, the tribes told a Minnesota federal judge, urging him to ax the federal agency's approval of the recently implemented standards.
July 06, 2023
Minnesota regulators lean on a broad set of environmental rules to protect natural resources, they told a federal judge, urging him to dismiss a lawsuit in which two Indigenous tribes have challenged the state's new clean-water regulations as ineffective.
June 22, 2023
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wants an early win in a suit brought against it by two Minnesota-based Native American tribes, telling a Minnesota federal judge that the new state water quality standards challenged in the litigation were revised to remove outdated and scientifically unsupported criteria.
June 08, 2023
Nine more Minnesota tribes are joining the Grand Portage Band and Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa in urging a federal judge to reverse the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's approval of amended water quality standards for the Land of 10,000 Lakes, saying they will harm wild rice beds and other aquatic resources.
November 21, 2022
U.S. Steel, rural Minnesota communities and a pro-business group can join the defense of state water quality standards from Native American tribes' challenge that the looser rules threaten traditional agriculture and wildlife, a Minnesota federal judge ruled Monday.
September 26, 2022
U.S. Steel Corp., the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce, a group of rural Minnesota cities and others that support new state water quality rules have asked to intervene in a lawsuit from Minnesota tribes claiming the new rules don't do enough to protect their wildlife or crops.
July 18, 2022
Two Native American tribes in Minnesota are suing the Environmental Protection Agency, saying it allowed the state to adopt a less strict water quality standard that could harm their reservations' wildlife and crops, and are asking a federal judge to reverse the agency's decision.