ELR Citation: ELR 20175
No(s). 91-36119 (9th Cir. Apr 29, 1993)

The court holds that a citizen group lacks standing to bring a suit to compel the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promulgate regulations under §518(e) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) to specify how Native American tribes should be treated as states for purposes of administering the Act on reservations. The court holds that the citizen group lacks standing because it failed to show a substantial likelihood that the relief requested will redress the alleged injury. The group, consisting of users of water downstream from reservations, alleged that regulations promulgated under §518(e) would allow tribes to enact stricter FWPCA standards than EPA's, but did not allege that the tribes would in fact regulate water quality more stringently than EPA. Moreover, the regulations would not require the tribes to adopt stricter standards. Furthermore, the remedy for the alleged injury depends on the actions of a third party not before the court—the regulating tribes. The court also rejects the group's claim that it has procedural standing under the FWPCA's citizen suit provision and the Administrative Procedure Act, because a plaintiff asserting procedural standing still must satisfy Article III standing requirements. Furthermore, procedural rights in protecting tribal sovereignty asserted on behalf of nonparty tribes do not extend to individual tribal member plaintiffs.

Counsel for Plaintiffs
C. Peter Corenson
P.O. Box 10836, Eugene OR 97440
(503) 683-1378

Counsel for Defendants
Thomas Lee, Ass't U.S. Attorney
U.S. Attorney's Office
888 SW Fifth Ave., Ste. 1000, Portland OR 97204
(503) 727-1000

Before Tang, Poole, and Rymer^*