Jumping Through Hoopa: Complicating the Clean Water Act for the States
Section 401 certification and permit conditioning under the Clean Water Act is one of the most significant tools for states to influence federally permitted activities involving discharges into navigable waters. However, states are required to set conditions within one year or they forgo their ability to do so. In practice, the one-year review is difficult for states to meet and led to a common practice known as “withdraw and resubmit” in which states could reset the clock. But in Hoopa Valley Tribe v. Federal Energy Regulatory Comm’n, the D.C.
WildEarth Guardians v. U.S. Bureau of Land Management
A district court vacated 287 oil and gas leases that BLM issued on 145,000 acres of federal land in Montana. Environmental groups argued that the agency violated NEPA by failing to consider the leases' impacts on groundwater from shallow fracturing and surface casing depth. The court found that the ...
Idaho Conservation League v. U.S. Forest Service
A district court vacated an EA and FONSI issued by the Forest Service approving a mining company to explore for gold on public lands near the Idaho-Montana border. Environmental groups previously argued before the court that the Forest Service failed to take a hard look at the impacts on groundwater...
Delaware Riverkeeper Network v. Sunoco Pipeline L.P.
A district court dismissed a challenge to a pipeline company's failure to seek a CWA permit for construction of a natural gas pipeline in Pennsylvania. A conservation group argued the company violated the CWA by failing to obtain an NPDES permit for its stormwater discharges after construction began...
Gulf Restoration Network v. Bernhardt
A district court granted summary judgment to the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) in a challenge to the agency's decision to hold oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico. Environmental groups argued that BOEM failed to evaluate a "true" no-action alternative in its EIS by assuming that...