ELR Citation: ELR 20113
No(s). 07-1355 (4th Cir. May 29, 2009)

The Fourth Circuit denied an environmental group's petition for rehearing on a prior court decision in which it reversed and vacated a district court order rescinding four U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permits allowing the filling of stream waters in conjunction with mountaintop mining operations in West Virginia. In that case (39 ELR 20035), the court was asked to determine only the narrow and rather fact-specific question of whether the Corps abused its discretion in exercising its CWA §404 authority to grant four individual fill permits. As the panel fully explained in its prior opinion, the Corps' conduct did not amount to such an abuse.

[A prior decision in this litigation can be found at 39 ELR 20035.]