A district court upheld a jury verdict that a Wyoming farmer who discharged material into a creek on his property without a permit was exempt from the CWA's permitting requirements. Below, the jury found in the farmer's activities fell under the CWA's "normal farming and ranching activities" exempti...

The Ninth Circuit affirmed in part and reversed in part a lower court decision approving CERCLA consent decrees between settling parties and the state concerning cleanup costs stemming from a hazardous waste site near Tucson, Arizona. Several nonsettling PRPs intervened in the case, seeking a court ...

A district court held that a mining company allowed excessive amounts of selenium to be discharged from one of its surface coal mine operations in violation of the CWA and SMCRA. The company's state permit does not explicitly impose selenium limitations, but it does incorporate by reference state re...

The Fifth Circuit upheld a lower court's dismissal of a lawsuit challenging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' jurisdictional determination (JD) that a proposed landfill site contains wetlands subject to regulation under the CWA. The lower court ruled that the JD is not a “final agency action” an...

The Fourth Circuit affirmed a lower court decision denying an environmental group's motion to intervene in a poultry farmer's lawsuit against EPA. In that case, the farmer seeks a declaratory judgment that farmyard stormwater runoff is statutorily exempt from regulation as an agricultural stormwater...

A district court upheld a CWA §404 permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the construction of a large marine transfer station near the upper east side of New York City. A group of residents filed suit challenging the permit, claiming that the Corps' issuance of the permit was arbitra...

The First Circuit vacated and remanded a lower court decision dismissing environmental groups' CWA claims against the operators of four hydroelectric dams along the Kennebec River. The groups alleged that the operators are in violation of their water quality certifications, and thus the CWA, because...

The Fourth Circuit held that a coal company may not assert the CWA's "permit shield" defense for discharges of selenium when it failed to disclose the presence of this pollutant during the permit application process. The company argued that because it disclosed the pollutants that it knew or had rea...

The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Enhanced Coordination Process memorandum, which concerns CWA §404 mining permit applications, as well as an EPA guidance document relating to such permits, against challenges from the mining industry and two states. The Enhanced Co...