Florida Clean Water Network v. United States Environmental Protection Agency
A district court remanded to EPA its determination that several provisions of Florida's "impaired water rule" are not new or revised water quality standards and, thus, not subject to approval by the Agency. An environmental group argued that EPA's decision was arbitrary and capricious. In order ...
United States v. Hampton Roads Sanitation Department
A district court held that a local sanitation department that owns and operates a complex sanitary sewer conveyance system and 13 wastewater treatment plants must pay penalties for the unintended discharge of sewage following heavy rainfall in the spring of 2010. The department previously entere...
Robinson Township v. Commonwealth
A Pennsylvania appellate court enjoined for 120 days the effective date of a new state law, Act 13, that authorizes municipalities to regulate the location of oil and gas operations but not the manner in which they are operated. The court reasoned that municipalities must have an adequate opport...
United States v. Wilmoth
The Eleventh Circuit upheld a restaurant manager's conviction for conspiring to illegally dump restaurant grease into U.S. waters in violation of the CWA. The evidence was easily sufficient to sustain a finding that he conspired to intentionally violate the CWA. He was the supervisor of four res...
Louisiana Environmental Action Network v. City of Baton Rouge
The Fifth Circuit reversed and remanded a lower court decision dismissing an environmental group's CWA action against a city for violations at its wastewater treatment plants. The lower court erred in ruling that a 2002 consent decree between the city and the U.S. government requiring the city t...
Abatti v. Imperial Irrigation District
A California appellate court affirmed a lower court decision denying agricultural water users' claim that an irrigation district violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when it adopted regulations for the distribution of water in the event of an actual or potential water shortag...
Atchafalaya Basinkeeper v. Chustz
The Fifth Circuit held that the CWA does not provide citizens the right to sue to enforce the conditions of §404 permits. Environmental groups filed a citizen suit against the Atchafalaya Basin Program, alleging that it violated its dredge and fill permit for Bayou Postillion in Iberia Parish, ...