A combination of federal wetland regulatory actions presents substantial uncertainty for regulated parties as they navigate wetland delineation and permitting processes for their projects. These concerns are compounded in...more
Can you still build a bulkhead along the shoreline in coastal Virginia to protect your property? Well, it depends, but now the answer is more likely to be “no.”...more
7/26/2021
/ Chesapeake Bay ,
Climate Change ,
Coastal Real Estate ,
Economic Development ,
Flooding ,
Navigable Waters ,
NOAA ,
Rising Sea Levels ,
Sea Levels ,
State and Local Government ,
Wetlands
In a recent special alert addressing Northern Plains Resource Council v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, we reported that the federal district court for Montana vacated the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) Nationwide Permit...more
As reported in a number of our newsletter articles over the past several years, both the Obama Administration, through its Clean Water Rule, and the Trump Administration have pursued major changes to the scope of...more
As we have reported in previous articles, controversy over whether the Clean Water Act (CWA) regulates discharges of pollutants that travel through groundwater into surface waters has led to significant litigation across the...more
5/8/2020
/ Appeals ,
Clean Water Act ,
Direct Discharge ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Functional Equivalent ,
Groundwater ,
Hawaii Wildlife Fund v County of Maui ,
Navigable Waters ,
NPDES ,
Permits ,
Point Sources ,
Remand ,
SCOTUS ,
Vacated ,
Waters of the United States
An April 15, 2020 decision by the United States District Court for the District of Montana has held that Nationwide Permit 12 (NWP 12) issued by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps’) is unlawful. Nationwide permits...more
4/30/2020
/ Clean Water Act ,
Deregulation ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Inland Waterways ,
National Marine Fisheries Service ,
Navigable Waters ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
US Fish and Wildlife Service ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands
The two-step regulatory process initiated in 2017 by EPA and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (together, the “Agencies”) to revise the regulatory definition of “waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”) continues its methodical...more
1/14/2020
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Clean Water Act ,
Clean Water Rule ,
Commerce Clause ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Navigable Waters ,
Rapanos v US ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Substantial Nexus ,
Trump Administration ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States
A major skirmish in the long-running legal battle over the scope of protected waters under the federal Clean Water Act (“Act”) has just ended with the U.S. Supreme Court decision in National Association of Manufacturers v....more
2/14/2018
/ Clean Water Act ,
Environmental Policies ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Navigable Waters ,
NPDES ,
Oil Spills ,
Rapanos v US ,
SCOTUS ,
US Army Corps of Engineers ,
Waters of the United States ,
Wetlands
It’s a bad day when you find out that your facility has been leaking wastewater, wastes, petroleum product or chemicals. But if the leak went into the soil and the groundwater first, rather than a nearby creek, are you liable...more