The Fifth Circuit vacated portions of EPA's 2008 concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) rule. The rule requires CAFOs that propose to discharge to apply for an NPDES permit. But there must be an actual discharge into navigable waters to trigger the CWA's requirements. EPA, therefore,...
The Ninth Circuit held that a local flood district is liable under the CWA for discharging polluted stormwater into the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers. Environmental groups filed suit against the flood district as well as against a county for unlawful stormwater discharges into the Los A...
A district court held that an environmental group may go forward with its CWA claim against a gas and electric company for unpermitted stormwater discharges from its service yards, but dismissed the group's RCRA claim. The company filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that its service yards do ...
The Ninth Circuit held that a timber company has standing to challenge EPA's decision to retain the Redwood Creek in Northern California as an impaired water body under CWA §303(d). The company has suffered a reduction in the economic value of its property in the Redwood Creek watershed, and the co...
A district court granted a motion to transfer the West Virginia environmental agency's action against EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers challenging their permitting processes for coal mining to the D.C. District Court for consolidation with another case filed by a mining industry trad...
A district court dismissed a motion to dismiss environmental groups' citizen suit against five coal companies alleging thousands of violations of the CWA and SMCRA in West Virginia. Because EPA entered into a consent decree with the companies, the defendants argued that the groups' CWA claim...
The Ninth Circuit held that EPA’s decision to transfer authority over portions of the NPDES program to the state of Alaska was not arbitrary or capricious. Petitioners argued that EPA did not adequately ensure that Alaska state law will provide the same opportunities for judicial review of permitt...
The Ninth Circuit, in an amended opinion, held that stormwater runoff from logging roads that is collected by and then discharged from a system of ditches, culverts, and channels is a point source discharge for which an NPDES permit is required. Accordingly, the court reversed a lower court dec...
A district court held that environmental groups may go forward with their claims that coal-contaminated dust, slurry, water, and snow is being discharged from a coal loading facility into a bay in violation of the CWA. Although the facility has an NPDES permit, the groups argued that the per...
The Fourth Circuit reversed and remanded a lower court decision upholding the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' conclusion that it had jurisdiction over wetlands on a developer's property. The Corps permissibly defined the scope of its review area as including 448 acres of similarly situated wetlands. B...