Responding to the US Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Sackett v. EPA, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the US Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) published a final rule (Sackett Rule), effective 8 September...more
It is rare for the U.S. Supreme Court to construe a statutory phrase on multiple occasions. And yet now, for purposes of the federal Clean Water Act (CWA or the Act), it has rendered no less than four interpretations of the...more
On 30 December 2022, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the Corps) (together, the Agencies) released a final rule redefining the scope of waters protected under the Clean Water Act...more
On 9 June 2022, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published in the federal register a proposed rule regarding the Clean Water Act (CWA) Section 401 water quality certification process (the Proposed Rule), undoing...more
On 18 November 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the "Corps") (together, the Agencies) released the pre-publication version of the proposed rule redefining the scope of...more
On 30 August 2021, Judge Rosemary Márquez, a federal district judge in the District of Arizona, ordered the remand and vacatur of the Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule (NWPR) defining “waters of the...more
On 14 January 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a guidance memorandum on the application of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 23 April 2020 decision in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund (Maui)....more
2/2/2021
/ Clean Water Act ,
Direct Discharge ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Functional Equivalent ,
Groundwater ,
Hawaii Wildlife Fund v County of Maui ,
Navigable Waters ,
Permits ,
Point Sources ,
SCOTUS ,
Waters of the United States
The Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) is hosting an informal meeting on January 28, 2021 to discuss implementing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) new total maximum daily load (TMDL) for...more
On 1 June 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced its much anticipated “Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification Rule” the (401 Certification Rule or Final Rule) revising and clarifying the water...more
On April 23, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its much-awaited decision in County of Maui v. Hawai’i Wildlife Fund on whether the Clean Water Act (CWA) regulates the discharge of pollutants that pass through groundwater...more
4/29/2020
/ Appeals ,
Clean Water Act ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Direct Discharge ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Functional Equivalent ,
Groundwater ,
Hawaii Wildlife Fund v County of Maui ,
Navigable Waters ,
Permits ,
Point Sources ,
Remand ,
SCOTUS ,
Vacated ,
Waters of the United States
On January 23, 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) finalized the Navigable Waters Protection Rule (Rule) to define “waters of the United States” (WOTUS). ...more
On Wednesday, November 6, 2019, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in County of Maui, Hawai´i v. Hawai´i Wildlife Fund, a case that considers whether the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) applies to discharges of pollutants...more
Last month the Trump Administration announced a proposed rule that would dramatically reduce the scope of federal authority under the Clean Water Act (“Act”). If finalized in its current form, the rule would eliminate federal...more
On June 26, 2018, in one of his final acts as Administrator of the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), Scott Pruitt issued a memorandum that has set in motion a process to amend the regulations that govern the...more
In a rebuke to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (“Corps”), the United States Supreme Court unanimously held on May 31, 2016, in Corps v. Hawkes that jurisdictional determinations (“JDs”) under the Clean Water Act are...more
For 30 years developers, agencies and courts have struggled over defining the purview of Clean Water Act jurisdiction (“CWA” or the “Act”). However, three U.S. Supreme Court rulings and a revised federal rule attempting to...more
On October 9, 2015, the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit issued a stay of the Obama Administration’s new rule defining the scope of federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act. The stay postpones...more
On May 12, 2014, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (“FWS”) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (collectively, the “Services”) issued notices of proposed rules and a proposed policy related to the designation of...more