ELR Citation: 45 ELR 20157
No(s). 12-35831 (9th Cir. Aug 21, 2015)

The Ninth Circuit held that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation did not violate the CWA by discharging pollutants into the Klamath River without a permit in connection with its management of an irrigation project along the California-Oregon border. The Klamath Straits Drain, part of the Klamath Irrigation Project, moves water from the Lower Klamath Lake back to the Klamath River. Environmental groups brought a CWA citizen suit against the agency, alleging that pollutants discharged into the river via the drain constituted an unlawful discharge. But in Los Angeles County Flood District v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 133 S. Ct. 710, 43 ELR 20004 (2013), the U.S. Supreme Court held that no pollutants are "added" to a water body when water is merely transferred between different portions of that water body. Here, the waters flowing into the river from the drain were not "meaningfully distinct." Rather, a "substantial portion" of the discharged water started in the river itself. As such, a permit was not required. The court, therefore, affirmed a lower court's grant of summary judgment in favor of the agency.