North Dakota v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
A North Dakota district court enjoined in Iowa the 2015 Clean Water Rule, which clarifies the definition of "waters of the United States" that are protected under the CWA. The governor of Iowa sought an order from the court expressly stating that the Clean Water Rule was enjoined in Iowa following t...
Sierra Club v. Virginia Electric & Power Company
The Fourth Circuit held that seepage from a coal-fired power plant did not violate §301 of the CWA, which prohibits the unauthorized discharge of any pollutant into navigable waters. An environmental group argued that the plant's landfill and settling ponds qualified as point sources from which ars...
Pakootas v. Teck Cominco Metals, Ltd.
The Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court's ruling that a Canadian smelter company that dumped several million tons of industrial waste into the Columbia River was liable for a Native American tribe's response costs. The company argued that CERCLA did not allow the tribe to recover its costs of es...
Texas v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
A district court granted Texas' motion to preliminarily enjoin the 2015 Clean Water Rule in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The state argued that implementing the rule would require it to spend significant time and taxpayer resources attempting to determine how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wi...
Delaware Riverkeeper Network v. Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
The Third Circuit denied review of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's decision to grant a CWA §401 certification for a natural gas pipeline project. Environmental groups argued that the department acted arbitrarily and capriciously by issuing a §401 certification that was im...