A North Dakota district court enjoined in Iowa the 2015 Clean Water Rule, which clarifies the definition of "waters of the United States" that are protected under the CWA. The governor of Iowa sought an order from the court expressly stating that the Clean Water Rule was enjoined in Iowa following t...

The Fourth Circuit held that seepage from a coal-fired power plant did not violate §301 of the CWA, which prohibits the unauthorized discharge of any pollutant into navigable waters. An environmental group argued that the plant's landfill and settling ponds qualified as point sources from which ars...

A district court granted Texas' motion to preliminarily enjoin the 2015 Clean Water Rule in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. The state argued that implementing the rule would require it to spend significant time and taxpayer resources attempting to determine how the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers wi...

The Third Circuit denied review of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's decision to grant a CWA §401 certification for a natural gas pipeline project. Environmental groups argued that the department acted arbitrarily and capriciously by issuing a §401 certification that was im...

A state review board affirmed the Washington Department of Ecology's denial of a CWA §401 certification requested by a coal company for a proposed coal export terminal. The company argued that its request was categorically exempt from the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), and that the departme...

A district court ruled in favor of environmental groups' challenge EPA's rule suspending the 2015 Waters of the United States Rule (WOTUS Rule), and enjoined the suspension rule nationwide. The groups argued that the suspension rule violated the APA by refusing to solicit public comments on the meri...