The Sixth Circuit, in litigation over the "waters of the United States" (WOTUS) rule, held that an internal U.S. Army Corps of Engineers memorandum critical of the rule's technical analysis may be included in the record. Petitioners argued that the litigation record omits several materials that were...

A district court held that environmental groups have standing to sue EPA under the APA and CWA for its failure to disapprove West Virginia's §303(d) list, which lacks TMDLs for waterbodies previously identified as "biologically impaired." The groups' members use some, but not all, impaired waterbod...

A district court held that environmental groups may go forward with some, but not all, of their CWA claims against TVA concerning coal ash contamination stemming from a coal-fired power plant near Gallatin, Tennessee. The groups allege that TVA knew that the ash ponds' construction and the area's to...

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court decision upholding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' 2012 decision to issue a general nationwide permit—NWP 21—authorizing discharges from certain coal mining activities into navigable waters. The 2012 version of NWP 21 contains two new provisions, a g...

A district court ordered EPA to promulgate revised water quality standards for Washington state by September 15, 2016, or, in the alternative, by November 15, 2016, if the state submits its own water quality standards by September 15. A key factor in determining the requisite water quality standards...

The D.C. Circuit upheld EPA's decision to invoke its veto authority under CWA §404(c) and withdraw two disposal sites from a CWA permit issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for a mountaintop coal mining project in West Virginia. The areas withdrawn make up roughly 88% of the total discharge a...

The Fourth Circuit upheld the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' issuance of a dredge and fill permit to a surface coal mine. Environmental groups challenged the adequacy of the Corps' environmental review, arguing that the Corps violated NEPA and the CWA by failing to consider evidence that surface coal...

A district court, on motions for summary judgment, held that the owner of a farm violated the CWA when he allowed wetlands on his property to be tilled. The record shows that the farm discharged a pollutant to navigable waters from a point source without a permit. Soil is a pollutant, the wetlands o...

A district court stayed further proceedings in litigation challenging EPA's "waters of the United States" (WOTUS) rule pending any further decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit or the U.S. Supreme Court. Numerous challenges throughout the country have been levied against the fi...

New York's highest court held that material questions of fact prevent it from ruling on whether a narrow waterway within a remote area of the Adirondack Mountains is navigable-in-fact and therefore open to public use. At issue in the case is the "Mud Pond Waterway," a two-mile-long system of ponds a...