Water Watchdogs to Redouble Efforts After Trespass Law Revoked
Eric Galatas, Producer
Thursday, November 1, 2018
CHEYENNE, Wyo. – Environmental watchdog groups are eager to get back in the field after a Wyoming federal district court this week struck down so-called data trespass laws.
Erik Molvar, executive director of the Western Watersheds Project, says by threatening citizens with jail time for collecting environmental data on public lands – if private lands had been crossed to reach those sites, even accidentally – the laws made it a lot harder to hold polluters accountable.
"So basically the law clamps down on the free speech rights of environmental watchdog groups, and indeed any member of the public, that wants to warn a federal agency that a problem is happening on public lands that that agency manages," he states.
Legislators passed laws in 2015 and 2016 arguing that measures were necessary to protect the rights of property owners.
But the judge wrote in his ruling that "there is simply no plausible reason for the specific curtailment of speech in the statutes beyond a clear attempt to punish individuals for engaging in protected speech that at least some find unpleasant."
Molvar says his group has collected scientific data for years showing that a majority of waterways on publicly owned lands in Wyoming are contaminated by potentially lethal fecal bacteria from livestock, in violation of the Clean Water Act, and he believes the state laws were passed to protect industry from being held accountable.
"But the Wyoming Legislature wanted to suppress our ability to warn the public about these serious health and safety problems and the risks that are posed by the livestock industry and their fecal coliform contamination," he states.
The court's ruling strikes down the state laws and permanently blocks them from being applied.
Earlier this year, the Wyoming Legislature passed a law that would have added bigger penalties to people who exercised their free speech rights at energy facilities, but the statute was vetoed by Gov. Matt Mead.
get more stories like this via email
United Nations experts are raising concerns about chemical giants DuPont and Chemours, saying they've violated human rights in North Carolina…
Social Issues
The long-delayed Farm Bill could benefit Virginia farmers by renewing funding for climate-smart investments, but it's been held up for months in …
Environment
Conservation groups say the Hawaiian Islands are on the leading edge of the fight to preserve endangered birds, since climate change and habitat loss …
Environment
April has been "Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month," but the pests don't know that. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it's the …
Health and Wellness
The 2024 Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium Public Conference kicks off Saturday, where industry experts and researchers will share the latest scientific …
Environment
Environmental groups say more should be done to protect people's health from what they call toxic, radioactive sludge. A court granted a temporary …