On July 12, 2023, Shortly after the Supreme Court’s ruling in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, EPA and the Department of the Army issued a letter advising the ranking member of the Senate’s Committee on Environment...more
“On three prior occasions, this Court has tried to clarify the meaning of ‘the waters of the United States.’ But the problem persists. When we last addressed the question 17 years ago, we were unable to agree on an opinion of...more
EPA and the US Army Corps of Engineers announced on Friday, December 30, 2022, the final, pre-publication version of a “Revised Definition of ‘Waters of the United States’ [“WOTUS”]” rule. This 2022 WOTUS Rule will become...more
A frequently noted adage in cases involving environmental citizen suits is that such actions are meant to “supplement, rather than supplant” governmental enforcement action. The dissent in the recently filed Naturaland Trust...more
You can be forgiven if you aren’t sure how jurisdictional waters are currently defined in the United States. Since 2015, the definition of Waters of the United States, or WOTUS, has changed more often than a college freshman...more
Since 1996, federal agencies have been required to review and adjust their statutory civil monetary penalties for inflation under the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act. Initially, these adjustments were made...more
On Tuesday, December 8, 2020, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a Draft Guidance Memorandum attempting to place the recent Supreme Court decision in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund “into context...more
12/14/2020
/ Clean Water Act ,
Comment Period ,
Discharge of Pollutants ,
Draft Guidance ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Functional Equivalent ,
Groundwater ,
Hawaii Wildlife Fund v County of Maui ,
NPDES ,
Permits ,
Point Sources ,
SCOTUS
The silence you are hearing is no one being surprised.
The limits of the phrase “waters of the United States” within the Clean Water Act (CWA) have been the subject of conflicting, confusing, and often divergent case law...more
EPA issued its Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification Final Rule on June 1, 2020 in an effort to comply with the directives of Executive Order 13868 promoting efficient permitting and timely agency actions. Section 401...more
Regulatory agencies frequently find themselves making decisions in the face of widely divergent viewpoints. Much like the heroine of the “Three Bears” nursery tale, these agencies often try to find a position that is “just...more
On April 23, 2020, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the addition of pollutants to groundwater which travels a half mile to enter navigable waters is the functional equivalent of a direct discharge, and subject to...more
4/24/2020
/ 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 ,
Permits ,
Point Sources ,
Remand ,
SCOTUS ,
Vacated ,
Waters of the United States