A district court upheld the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision to issue a general nationwide permit—NWP 21—authorizing discharges from certain coal mining activities into navigable waters. Despite environmental groups' arguments to the contrary, the Corps' issuance of NWP 21 was neither arbi...

A district court denied motions to dismiss environmental groups' CWA citizen suit against an energy company for alleged NPDES permit violations at a retired coal-fired power plant. The groups alleged that the company unlawfully discharged pollutants through engineered seeps, non-engineered seeps, an...

A district court, on motions for summary judgment, held that a marine fueling, service, and storage facility in Seattle was liable under the CWA for various NPDES general permit violations. The company's stormwater discharges exceeded the benchmarks for zinc and copper, the company failed to monitor...

The Second Circuit remanded portions of EPA's 2013 general NPDES permit for ship ballast water, a primary cause of the spread of invasive species from one body of water to another. The general permit imposed both technology-based effluent limitations (TBELs) and water quality-based effluent limitati...

The Sixth Circuit issued a nationwide stay enjoining the "waters of the United States" rule pending the court's determination as to whether it has subject matter jurisdiction to review the rule. The court held that the petitioning states demonstrated a substantial possibility of success on the merit...

A district court upheld EPA's decision to withdraw a proposed rule that would have required concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) to provide information to the Agency to help facilitate EPA's ability to regulate their discharge of pollutants into the waters of the United States under the CW...

The D.C. Circuit upheld the dismissal of an environmental group's NEPA and CWA claims against the U.S. government in connection with a 593-mile oil pipeline that runs from Illinois to Oklahoma on both public and private lands. Despite the group's claims to the contrary, the government was not requir...

A district court upheld Oregon's clean fuels program, which seeks to reduce lifecycle emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from transportation fuels by 10% over a 10-year period. Trade associations argued that the program was unconstitutional because it discriminates against out-of-state commerce. Bu...