ELR Citation: ELR 20118
No(s). 07-13829 (11th Cir. Jun 4, 2009)

The Eleventh Circuit held that a water district may pump polluted canal water into Florida's Lake Okeechobee without an NPDES permit. It is undisputed that the agricultural and industrial runoff in the canals contain "pollutants," that the lake and the canals are "navigable waters," and that the three pump stations at issue are "point sources." The only issue in dispute, therefore, is whether moving an existing pollutant from one navigable water body to another is an "addition . . . to navigable waters" of that pollutant under the CWA. The lower court ruled that it was and held that an NPDES was required. Since then, however, EPA adopted its water transfers rule, which states that a transfer of a pollutant from one navigable body of water to another is not a "discharge of a pollutant." The Eleventh Circuit ruled that EPA's regulation is a reasonable, and therefore permissible, construction of the CWA. The water district, therefore, need not obtain an NPDES permit to pump the canal water into Lake Okeechobee, and the lower court's decision was reversed.