In an unpublished opinion, the Ninth Circuit reversed the denial of an environmental group's motion to intervene in a lawsuit challenging EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' 2015 Clean Water Rule. The court found that the group had a practical interest in the rule and that this interest was no...
A district court granted a motion for summary judgment in a challenge to EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' 2015 Clean Water Rule. States and industry groups argued the rule violated the CWA by extending the agencies' jurisdiction beyond the limits of the Act. The court determined that the ru...
A district court vacated TMDLs that were established by the District of Columbia for E. Coli bacteria in portions of the Anacostia and Potomac Rivers and approved by EPA in 2014. Environmental groups challenged EPA's approval, arguing the Agency failed to set true maximum daily loads of E. Coli disc...
The Oregon Supreme Court upheld the Department of Environmental Quality's issuance of a permit for the discharge of certain pollutants resulting from suction dredge mining. A mining association argued that because suction dredge mining did not add anything to navigable waters that was not already th...
A district court denied Oklahoma's motion to preliminarily enjoin EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from enforcing their 2015 Clean Water Rule. The state sought to enjoin the 2015 Rule from being enforced until a final judgment was entered in the case. But the court found the potential harm f...
A district court granted states' and industry groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to EPA's and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' 2015 Clean Water Rule. The states and groups argued that the final rulemaking violated the notice-and-comment requirements under the APA because the rulemak...
A district court stayed a constitutional challenge to the Washington Department of Ecology's decision to deny a coal company a CWA §401 certification for construction of a coal export facility along the Columbia River. The company argued that the Department violated the Commerce Clause by denying t...
The Fifth Circuit vacated portions of a 2015 EPA rule that set new effluent limitation guidelines (ELGs) for legacy wastewater and combustion residual leachate that are discharged from steam electric power plants. Environmental groups argued that the Agency arbitrarily set the ELGs using an older, l...
A state high court affirmed a lower court's summary judgment for the Montana Department of Environmental Quality in a challenge to the Department's issuance of a NPDES general permit for discharges from municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s). An environmental group challenged the permit, argu...
A district court granted Washington's and environmental groups' motion for summary judgment in a challenge to the state's decision to deny a coal company a CWA §401 certification for construction of a coal export facility along the Columbia River. A railroad company, which planned to provide rail s...