On September 16th, 2021 the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals found that Idaho regulations fail to protect the state's groundwater from pollution by concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs). The court vacated the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) CAFO permit for the state. What this will mean for Idaho's hundreds of existing CAFOs and the state's already-poisoned groundwater is yet to be determined. The ruling comes years too late to prevent one such operation that was allowed to be constructed abutting the site of the Minidoka War Relocation Center in Idaho, a National Monument to the devastating consequences of government-sanctioned racism. In 2012 Idaho's highest court ruled that construction could go forward despite opposition from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the National Park Service, and Idaho landowners and environmental groups. You can read my original post about that battle here.