Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, Inc. v. Pruitt
The Fourth Circuit reversed a lower court's grant of summary judgment requiring EPA and West Virginia to address coal mining-related water pollution. Environmental groups argued that EPA failed to perform its nondiscretionary duty under the CWA to promulgate TMDLs for biologically impaired waters in...
Georgia v. Pruitt
A district court granted 11 states' motion to preliminarily enjoin EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from implementing the "waters of the United States" rule, also known as the WOTUS rule or Clean Water Rule. The states demonstrated a likelihood of success on their claims that the rule was pr...
Clean Water Action v. Pruitt
A district court dismissed an environmental groups' lawsuit challenging EPA's decision to stay a 2015 CWA rule concerning effluent limitations for steam electric power plants. The rule addressed effluent limitations and standards for six waste streams generated by steam electric power plants: bottom...
Upstate Forever v. Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P.
The Fourth Circuit held that citizens may bring suit alleging a violation of the CWA when the source of the pollution is no longer releasing the pollutant, but the pollutant continues to be discharged into surface waterways via groundwater. In late 2014, several hundred thousand gallons of gasoline ...
Environmental Law & Policy Center v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
A district court held it could not rule on the merits as to whether EPA violated the APA when it approved Ohio's 2016 impaired water list, but nevertheless remanded the case to EPA so it could approve or disapprove Ohio's incomplete CWA §303 list. Under the CWA, states must submit to EPA a list of ...
Friends of the Santa Clara River v. United States Army Corps of Engineers
The Ninth Circuit upheld the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' issuance of a CWA §404 permit authorizing the discharge of materials into the Santa Clara River as part of a large-scale residential, commercial, and industrial development project in Los Angeles County. The proposed project would encompass...
Hawaii Wildlife Fund v. Maui, City of
The Ninth Circuit held that Maui County is liable for illegally discharging treated wastewater that seeped through groundwater into the Pacific Ocean. The County owns and operates four wells at the Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility (“LWRF”), the principal municipal wastewater treatment pla...
United States v. Robertson
The Ninth Circuit upheld the criminal conviction of a Montana resident for violations of the CWA. The resident was sentenced to 18 months in prison and had to pay a $130,000 fine for digging ponds and diverting a creek onto his land in Montana and the neighboring Beaverhead-Deerlodge National Forest...