This article is reprinted with the permission of Law360, where it originally appeared on July 30, 2014, under the title “Arguing Injury Can Prevent Harm From EPA Water Listing.” The listing of a water body as impaired under the Clean … Continue reading
Category Archives: Water
D.C. Circuit rebuffs another coal mining industry challenge
Last year, we reported on Mingo Logan Coal Co. v. EPA, 714 F.3d 608 (D.C. Cir. 2013). In that case, a coal mining company argued that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had exceeded its statutory authority when it invoked … Continue reading
Do water transfers require NPDES permits? The debate continues.
Whether or not a discharge qualifies as a “discharge of a pollutant” determines whether or not it is regulated under the Clean Water Act, which has significant consequences for the person discharging. Section 301 of the Act broadly prohibits “the discharge … Continue reading
Challenging EPA’s administration of the Clean Water Act for failure to consider climate impacts
Environmental interests have seemingly embarked on a new campaign to challenge the EPA’s administration of the Clean Water Act (CWA) for failure to consider the impacts of climate change. In some instances, they have opposed consent decrees that EPA has proposed to resolve violations associated with combined … Continue reading
Consent decrees take center stage in two high profile environmental cases
Consent decrees are settlement agreements among litigating parties that are sanctioned by and entered as orders of the court. By any measure, last week was an important week for consent decrees in environmental litigation. On Monday, over the objections of several intervening … Continue reading
Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board issues trinity of opinions on fee shifting under the Clean Streams Law
On December 12, 2013, the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (EHB) delivered three opinions deciding several applications for attorney’s fees and costs under the Pennsylvania Clean Streams Law (CSL). Befitting the season, the EHB stuffed some of these stockings with gifts while … Continue reading
Still standing, still intact: Chesapeake Bay TMDL survives second legal challenge
This past September, in a case currently up on appeal before the Third Circuit, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania rejected a challenge to the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load (“Bay TMDL”) brought by several … Continue reading
The waiting is the hardest part: Eleventh Circuit rejects novel attempt to circumvent citizen suit notice provision
Frustrated at having their Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suits blocked time and again by a state regulator, a couple of environmental organizations tried to avail themselves of a seldom invoked exception to the CWA citizen suit notice provision. Without … Continue reading
District Court cries “fowl” on EPA attempt to expand CAFO permitting authority
Late last month, in a decision that should come as no surprise to those following the proceedings, the Northern District of West Virginia held that EPA lacked the authority to issue a compliance order under the Clean Water Act (CWA) to an operator of a concentrated … Continue reading
Septic Saga, Part 2: Pennsylvania enacts Act 41, prompting threat of lawsuit
In a previous blog post, we discussed a policy that the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) had proposed to guide its review of sewage facilities planning modules proposing the use of individual and community onlot sewage systems in High … Continue reading