ELR Citation: ELR 20202
No(s). 4:03-CV-807-Y (N.D. Tex. Sep 28, 2005)

A court holds that developers of a residential subdivision allowed sediment to escape the subdivision in stormwater discharges and to accumulate in nearby ponds in violation of their Clean Water Act permit. The developers argued that they should be immune from liability because they offered to remove the sediment from the ponds but could not do so because they were not granted access to the site. But their offer to remove the sediment was not made until approximately one year after the discharges began. Thus, even assuming that they had been permitted to implement their remediation offer and that this offer would have remedied the entirety of their discharges of sediment, this simply would not have constituted removing the sediment "at a frequency to minimize further negative effects" as required by the permit. Plaintiffs also argued that the developers, on 27 specific dates, discharged stormwater from the subdivision in violation of Texas water quality standards. But the existence of genuine issues of material fact precludes the issuance of summary judgment on this claim.