ELR Citation: ELR 20043
No(s). 05-8006 (10th Cir. Feb 21, 2006)

The court affirms an individual's conviction for discharging pollutants into the Wind River in Wyoming in violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The individual argued that his use of a bulldozer to construct dikes did not amount to the addition of a pollutant into the river because the construction did not add materials from outside the river’s banks. But his use of a bulldozer to remove river bottom materials in order to construct his dikes unquestionably falls within the scope of U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' regulations, and the CWA, in order to apply, does not require proof that the defendant's discharge of pollutants into a tributary caused any deleterious effect on the navigable waters downstream. In addition, the lower court did not err in admitting certain evidence.