United States v. Renton
A district court held that the CWA's waiver of sovereign immunity applies to stormwater management fees. In 2011, in response to federal agencies that had ceased paying stormwater program charges, Congress passed the "stormwater amendment" (CWA §313(c)) to clarify federal responsibility to pay ...
Native Village of Point Hope v. Salazar
The Ninth Circuit dismissed environmental and Alaska Native groups' petitions challenging the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management's (BOEM's) approval of an oil company's exploration plan to drill in the Beaufort Sea. BOEM's decision that the company's exploration plan complied with the Outer Conti...
Defenders of Wildlife v. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement
A district court held that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement (BOEMRE) did not violate NEPA or the ESA when it accepted over 300 bids for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon disaster. An environmental group argued that the ag...
Bair v. Caltrans,
A district court ordered the California Department of Transportation to revise its EA for a proposal to widen a highway through a state park home to ancient redwoods as well as an abundance of wildlife, including the marbled murrelet and spotted owl. There are a number of discrepancies and omiss...
Florida Clean Water Network v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
A district court remanded to EPA its determination that several provisions of Florida's "impaired water rule" are not new or revised water quality standards and, thus, not subject to approval by the Agency. An environmental group argued that EPA's decision was arbitrary and capricious. In order ...
United States v. Hampton Roads Sanitation Department
A district court held that a local sanitation department that owns and operates a complex sanitary sewer conveyance system and 13 wastewater treatment plants must pay penalties for the unintended discharge of sewage following heavy rainfall in the spring of 2010. The department previously entere...
United States v. Wilmoth
The Eleventh Circuit upheld a restaurant manager's conviction for conspiring to illegally dump restaurant grease into U.S. waters in violation of the CWA. The evidence was easily sufficient to sustain a finding that he conspired to intentionally violate the CWA. He was the supervisor of four res...