ELR Citation: ELR 20194
No(s). C 03-05760 SI (N.D. Cal. Sep 18, 2006)

A district court issues a permanent injunction ordering the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate shipping vessel discharges under the Clean Water Act (CWA) by September 30, 2008. In a previous decision, the court ruled that a 30-year regulation that exempts all effluent discharges "incidental to the normal operation of a vessel" from the national pollutant discharge elimination system program violates the CWA. At issue here, therefore, is the remedy. Although ballast water discharges are a primary concern of the environmental groups that challenge the regulation, the court denies EPA's request to limit the remedy to such discharges because the groups initially sought to invalidate the entire regulation. And given that the regulation is plainly contrary to the congressional intent embodied in the CWA, the court reasons that the entire regulation should be set aside. But rather than vacating the rule immediately, the court decides to give EPA two years to address the problem.

[A prior decision in this litigation is digested at 35 ELR 20075.]