ELR Citation: 51 ELR 20102
No(s). 1:18-cv-353-REB (D. Idaho Jun 4, 2021) (Bush, J.)

A district court granted a conservation group's motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit concerning a California resident's recreational gold mining in a river in Idaho. The group argued the defendant violated the CWA by suction dredge mining during the 2014, 2015, and 2018 dredging seasons without obtaining an NPDES permit under §402 of the Act. The miner counterargued that his mining did not "add" pollutants to the river and thus did not require an NPDES permit, and that even if his mining did add pollutants, those pollutants were "dredged" or "fill" material regulated exclusively under §404 of the CWA and thus did not require an NPDES permit. The court found that suction dredge mining excavated rock, gravel, sand, and sediment from the riverbed and then "added" those materials back to the river in suspended form, and thus that the very nature of the defendant's mining added pollutants to the river. It further found that since 2013 EPA has required an NPDES permit for suction dredge mining, and deferred to EPA's and the Army Corps of Engineers' interpretation of applicable regulations that the processed material discharged from the resident's mining was a pollutant, not dredged or fill material. The court therefore granted summary judgment for the conservation group.