The Second Circuit denied environmental groups' and industry associations' petitions to review a final rule promulgated by EPA establishing requirements for cooling water intake structures (CWISs) at existing power plants and manufacturing facilities, as well as a biological opinion jointly issued b...
The Fifth Circuit vacated a lower court's decision to preliminarily enjoin a pipeline company from constructing part of a pipeline through the Atchafalaya Basin, a sensitive wetlands area in southern Louisiana. Environmental groups argued that the EAs conducted by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (C...
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...
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...
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...
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 ...
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 ...
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...
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...
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...