Clean Water Act (CWA)
To the Ends of the Earth: Where Does Navigable Water Begin Under <i>SWANCC</i>?

I. Introduction and Overview

 

Traveling by water can conjure images of everything from goliath cruise ships to Huckleberry Finn's homemade raft. For some federal courts,…

"Green Collar Criminals" and Wetlands Uncertainty: The Effect of Criminal Provisions in Public Welfare Statutes on Wetlands

Under the public welfare doctrine, certain regulatory crimes require no showing of the traditional mens rea, or "guilty mind," as a predicate to criminal liability. The doctrine has been used to…

Control of Nonpoint Pollution Through Citizen Enforcement of Unpermitted Stormwater Discharges: A Proposal for Bottom-Up Litigation

This Article investigates the murky regulatory world of stormwater pollution. Nonpoint source pollution has been described as the most significant water quality problem facing the United States.…

Judicial, Administrative, and Congressional Responses to SWANCC

In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (SWANCC), courts have scrambled to reevaluate the scope and…

The Clean Water Act: What's Commerce Got to Do With It?

Few commentators doubt the value of clean, unadulterated waters teeming with varied and colorful aquatic life. The debate centers instead on more pragmatic concerns, that is, how to best…

Where the Water Hits the Road: Recent Developments in Clean Water Act Litigation

The last 18 months have produced particularly interesting juridical and administrative pronouncements in the areas of Clean Water Act (CWA or Act) jurisdiction, permits, standards, citizen suits,…

Unnecessarily Hesitant Good Samaritans: Conducting Voluntary Cleanups of Inactive and Abandoned Mines Without Incurring Liability

Until the 1970s, federal and state laws did little to control the harmful water quality impacts of mining exploration, and mine wastes were regularly deposited wherever was convenient, including…

Could SWANCC Be Right? A New Look at the Legislative History of the Clean Water Act

For over two decades, courts and agencies have assumed that the Clean Water Act (CWA) grants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps)…

The Myths and Truths That Threaten the TMDL Program

Thirty years in the making, the total maximum daily load (TMDL) program of §303(d) of the Clean Water Act (CWA) has never seemed farther from implementation. As state governments increasingly have…

The Clean Water Act TMDL Program V: Aftershock and Prelude

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is in the process of redesigning the Clean Water Act's (CWA's) total maximum daily load (TMDL) program. Section 303 of the Act requires states and,…