The Fourth Circuit upheld an injunction requiring the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to obtain NPDES permits for reclamation efforts at abandoned coal mining sites. The text of the CWA, as well as corresponding EPA regulations, confirm that the permit requirements apply...

A district court upheld EPA's rule setting numeric nutrient criteria for Florida except in two respects: the stream criteria and the default downstream-protection criteria for unimpaired lakes. In 2009, recognizing that the state's narrative criterion was insufficient to control Florida's widesp...

The D.C. Circuit held that a city has standing to challenge a railroad company's sale of a historic elevated railroad embankment to developers. The city argued that the sale was void because the company failed to obtain approval from the Surface Transportation Board (STB) to abandon the property...

A New York trial court held that the state environmental agency's general permit for stormwater discharges from municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4) violates the CWA and state law. By allowing discharges based on an applicant's notice of intent (NOI) to discharge, the permitting scheme c...

A district court held that a mining company is liable for discharging arsenic and iron into a nearby creek in violation of its NPDES permit. The company did not deny or admit that it is in violation of its permit. Instead, it argued that the environmental group that filed suit against it lacked ...

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The D.C. Circuit held that a home builders association lacked standing to challenge the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' issuance of nationwide permit (NWP) 46, which allows persons to secure approval for qualifying discharges into "waters of the United States" without going through the more laborious ...

The D.C. Circuit held that a home builders' association lacked standing to challenge EPA's and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' determination that two reaches of the Santa Cruz River in southern Arizona constitute "traditional navigable waters" (TNW) under the CWA. Although the association has spen...

The Sixth Circuit upheld an individual's conviction for unlawfully discharging industrial wastewater into the Detroit sewer system. The individual, who worked at an industrial waste treatment facility, was sentenced to two 24-month prison terms, to run concurrently, for knowingly violating EPA-a...

The D.C. Circuit held that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers complied with the CWA when it issued a permit authorizing the discharge of dredge and fill material into wetlands outside Tampa, Florida, for the construction of a large shopping center. An environmental group argued that the Corps violated...