This Article calls on the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) to issue guidance clarifying that concurrent decommissioning is a “connected action” under the National Environmental Policy Act for relocation, managed retreat, and protect-in-place projects aimed at replacing infrastructure in environmentally threatened Alaska Native communities. In 2018, the Denali Commission completed the final environmental impact statement for Alaska’s first community-driven village relocation of the millennium, facilitating construction of essential infrastructure at Mertarvik, Newtok’s relocation site. The Commission chose to exclude a full-scale decommissioning plan for Newtok’s existing infrastructure. Over 73 Alaska Native villages face unprecedented severe threats from flooding, erosion, permafrost degradation, and the combined effects of each. The Commission’s segmented approach to decommissioning exposed critical gaps in interagency cooperation, tribal consultation, and funding priorities, setting a dangerous precedent for similar at-risk communities facing toxic pollution of their water and subsistence resources. As tribal organizations and partner agencies work to protect these communities from environmental threats and historic inequities, CEQ guidance on decommissioning is more pressing now than ever.

Between January 2020 and March 2023, U.S. electronic cigarette sales grew 43%, from 15.6 million devices per month to 22.4 million devices. During this time frame, the portion of sales comprising disposable devices grew from 4 million to 11.9 million per month. The impact upon the environment has been largely overlooked by policymakers. Containing nicotine, batteries and circuitry containing heavy and precious metals, and plastics, e-cigarettes can qualify as hazardous wastes under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and contain hazardous substances for purposes of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. Due to the diffuse nature of this waste, existing regulations have failed to address this issue. This Article details each phase of the issue, painting a realistic image of current regulations around waste management and cleanup, and provides a pathway to responding to this disaster through both state and federal action.