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Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund
The U.S. Supreme Court held, 6-3, that the "functional equivalent of a direct discharge" of pollutants requires a CWA permit, and remanded for consideration of whether a discharge of pollutants into groundwater that later discharged into the Pacific Ocean meets this standard. Environmental groups ar...
Compliance Models for Off-Grid Wastewater Treatment and Reuse
Throughout the world, people struggle to gain access to stable sources of clean water. While there are increasingly innovative solutions being developed, many communities simply do not have access to efficient, centralized wastewater management systems, and as a result, face difficulty finding reliable sources of water for daily use. There is a great need to implement novel systems that can fill the gap, especially for isolated or “off-grid” communities.
Northern Plains Resource Council v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
A district court vacated a nationwide permit reissued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that allowed for construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline across waterways. Environmental groups argued the reissuance violated the ESA by failing to initiate programmatic consultation. The court found that dec...
Friends of the Capital Crescent Trail v. United States Army Corps of Engineers
A district court upheld a CWA §404 permit the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted to authorize the Maryland Transit Administration (MTA) to discharge dredge-and-fill materials into nearby waters during construction of a light rail project, known as the Purple Line project, that would connect subur...
Center for Biological Diversity v. Ross
A district court held that NMFS violated the ESA by approving a U.S. lobster fishery without adequately considering the fishery's impact on the endangered North Atlantic right whale. Conservation groups argued the agency violated the ESA by failing to include an incidental take statement (ITS) in it...
Dallas Safari Club v. Bernhardt
A district court denied a motion for a preliminary injunction in a challenge against FWS' failure to act on pending elephant trophy import permit applications. Hunting and tourism groups and elephant sport hunters sought an injunction requiring FWS to expeditiously process all pending and subsequent...
Austin v. Kinder Morgan Texas Pipeline, LLC
A district court denied local government entities' and landowners' request to temporarily halt construction of a 430-mile natural gas pipeline in Texas. Plaintiffs argued that allowing construction without an incidental take permit under §10 of the ESA would result in an unlawful take of endangered...
Federalism's Blind Spots: The Crisis of Small Drinking Water Systems
Drinking water contamination in Flint, Michigan, has garnered much-needed nationwide attention, but such contamination is neither isolated, nor a primarily urban problem. A hidden water crisis is straining thousands of smaller communities that share Flint’s risk factors—shrinking populations, social marginalization, and deficient funds. This Article posits that the Safe Drinking Water Act’s increasingly decentralized monitoring and funding scheme has drained communities of the capacity to deliver safe water.