The Sixth Circuit dismissed individuals' CWA citizen suit against the Ohio Department of Agriculture (ODA) for issuing NPDES permits for animal feeding operations without first obtaining approval from EPA. States must notify EPA if they intend to transfer authority over part of the EPA-approved stat...

The Eleventh Circuit denied environmental groups' lawsuit challenging EPA's interim decision not to revoke Alabama's NPDES permitting authority. Alleging 26 program deficiencies, the groups petitioned EPA to begin proceedings to withdraw Alabama's authority to administer the NPDES program. EPA issue...

A district court granted in part and denied in part cross-motions for summary judgment in a CWA citizen suit alleging a cruise ship terminal and port discharged industrial stormwater runoff and other pollutants into U.S. waters without a NPDES permit. The environmental group that initiated the lawsu...

A district court held a petroleum company liable for $159.5 million in civil penalties under the CWA in connection with the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. The court applied each of the CWA’s eight civil penalty factors in reaching its conclusion, with "seriousness" and "culpability" being the mo...

In an unpublished opinion, the Eleventh Circuit affirmed a lower court decision dismissing landowners' claims that a city violated the CWA and state law by failing to perform maintenance and repairs on a stream, pond, and dam located partially on their property. The city is a small municipal separat...

A district court held that an environmental group may go forward with its CWA and NEPA lawsuit against a water district, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the owner of the largest federal mitigation bank in the United States over claims that the defendants have taken actions to use and develop t...

A district court dismissed a mitigation bank owner's APA claims against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for requiring a CWA §404 permittee to purchase "invalid" banking credits from another mitigation bank in connection with a railroad project. The owner claimed that despite the fact that his miti...

A district court denied in part and granted in part EPA's motion to dismiss property owners' lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of an EPA compliance order under CWA §309. EPA determined that, in the course of developing the property, the owners discharged dredge and fill materials into water...

A district court upheld the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' decision to issue a general nationwide permit—NWP 21—authorizing discharges from certain coal mining activities into navigable waters. Despite environmental groups' arguments to the contrary, the Corps' issuance of NWP 21 was neither arbi...

A district court denied motions to dismiss environmental groups' CWA citizen suit against an energy company for alleged NPDES permit violations at a retired coal-fired power plant. The groups alleged that the company unlawfully discharged pollutants through engineered seeps, non-engineered seeps, an...