Salmon require cool temperatures to migrate and reproduce. The Clean Water Act (CWA) requires states to develop and implement water quality standards sufficient to produce fishable waters. Nearly a half-century after its 1972 enactment, the modern federal statute’s goal of fishable waters has yet to be achieved in the case of salmon streams.
The Fourth Circuit stayed a pipeline company's use of a nationwide permit, verified by the Army Corps of Engineers, to carry out construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in streams and rivers along the pipeline's route. Environmental groups argued the verification was unlawful because the Corps ...
The Montana Supreme Court affirmed vacatur of a Montana Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (MPDES) permit issued by the Montana Department of Environmental Quality (MDEQ) for a copper and silver mine in the Cabinet Mountains. Environmental groups argued, among other things, that MDEQ unlawfully ...
A district court denied mine owners' motion to dismiss a lawsuit alleging they were in violation of their NPDES permit. A conservation group and the state of Washington argued that the owners had violated the terms of their permit by discharging pollutants in excess of average monthly effluent limit...
A district court vacated EPA's 2019 determination that found no jurisdictional waters under the CWA at a salt production complex bordering the southwestern San Francisco Bay. The Agency argued that the CWA did not apply to the complex because it was converted to salt ponds prior to the Act's passage...