ELR Citation: 51 ELR 20188
No(s). 12-00198 SOM/KJM (D. Haw. Oct 20, 2021) (Mollway, J.)

A district court declined to reconsider its previous order granting summary judgment for environmental groups in an ongoing dispute over a Hawaii county's release of pollutants into injection wells at a wastewater facility near the Pacific Ocean. The groups had argued the county violated the CWA by failing to obtain an NPDES permit for discharge of wastewater into the ocean, and the court had found that the release of pollutants into the wells, which discharged into the groundwater and ultimately into the ocean, was the functional equivalent of a direct discharge and triggered the NPDES permit requirement. The county moved for reconsideration, challenging the court's examination of the volume of treated sewage released into the wells and the weight it accorded to the discharges that could be detected where the wells were seeping. But the court was not persuaded to alter its conclusion that what was before the court was the functional equivalent of a direct discharge. It therefore denied the county's motion for reconsideration.