An Ohio appellate court held that the state environmental review board erred in affirming portions of Ohio EPA's CWA §401 water quality certification that prohibited a coal mining company from impacting certain wetlands. The mining company, which has a permit to mine approximately 1,100 acres of la...

A district court held that a Hawaiian county violated the CWA by discharging effluent without a NPDES permit at two of four injection wells at the Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility. At issue was whether the discharges were from a point source. The county argued that when a single point source ...

A district court held a West Virginia coal mine liable under the CWA for discharging excessive amounts of ionic pollution, measured as conductivity and sulfates, into the waters of West Virginia in violation of its NPDES permits. Environmental groups established, by a preponderance of the evidence, ...

The Sixth Circuit held that the CWA's permit shield protects a surface coal mining company from liability for selenium discharges. The company, which operates under a state-issued general NPDES permit, discharged selenium into surrounding water. Although the permit did not specify effluent limitatio...

A district court held BLM liable under the CWA for discharging pollutants from two of its wells into a tributary of the Arkansas River without a permit, but refused to enjoin the agency from further discharges. BLM is clearly in violation of the Act, as it failed to obtain an NPDES permit for the di...

A district court denied a swine farm's motion to strike an environmental group's request for a jury trial in their CWA and RCRA citizen suit. The group's citizen suit alleged that the farm illegally dumped swine waste onto surrounding lands and waters in violation of the two statutes. The farm argue...