[WEBINAR] Fairly (or Unfairly?) Traceable: Are Discharges Through Groundwater Subject to the Clean Water Act?
On November 20, 2023, a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its opinion in Idaho Conservation League v. Poe, No. 22-35978. Therein, the Court upheld its previous interpretation of “discharged” in the context of...more
UPDATE: On August 23, 2023 the California Supreme Court, sitting en banc, denied Waterkeeper’s petition for review. The Second District Court of Appeal’s ruling therefore remains the governing law....more
Three Requests for Hearing and Adjudicatory Review (“Requests”) have been filed before the Arkansas Pollution Control & Ecology Commission (“APC&EC”) challenging a nonmunicipal domestic wastewater treatment facility discharge...more
UPDATE: In response to a request for modification by the State and Regional Water Boards, the Second District Court of Appeal has limited certain aspects of its prior ruling. The primary ask of the State and Regional Water...more
In Minnesota and around the country, agencies and legislatures are working to formally incorporate concepts of environmental justice and cumulative impacts into permitting decisions and enforcement....more
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or “PFAS,” as they have come to be known, are a category of widely-used and long-lasting chemicals found in many consumer, commercial, and industrial products. The human health and...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) exercise certain Clean Water Act residual designation authorities to address stormwater discharges in three Massachusetts watersheds. The designations were...more
Since the U.S. Supreme Court decided the County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund case in April 2020, the legal landscape of "navigable waters of the U.S." has eroded quickly. With Maui, the Supreme Court created a test for...more
The latest season of Clean Water Act (CWA) changes are now streaming from the courts and federal agencies. The Biden administration and lower courts have picked up where prior administrations and the U.S. Supreme Court left...more
On January 29, 2021, the China State Council issued Regulations on Management of Pollutant Discharge Permits with an effective date of March 1, 2021 (Regulations). These Regulations complete legislative efforts on the...more
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy recently signed a historic environmental justice bill to protect overburdened communities from pollutants. The law requires the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) to deny...more
Earlier this week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency finalized the “Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification Rule” (Rule). The Rule comes with significant procedural and substantive changes to the certification...more
The City of Little Rock, Arkansas (“Little Rock”) filed a January 16th Request for Commission Review and Adjudicatory Hearing (“Request”) before the Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission (“Commission”) challenging...more
The City and County of San Francisco (collectively “San Francisco”) filed a January 13th pleading before the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) Environmental Appeals Board (“EAB”) titled: Petition for...more
• The Clean Water Act imposes permitting obligations on "point sources." • Should those obligations apply to railroad cars, which move freely from state to state? • The U.S. railroad industry has asked the Surface...more
Seyfarth Synopsis: USEPA published an Interpretive Statement (dated April 12, 2019), that according to the Agency “clarifies” that releases of pollutants to groundwater from a point source are “categorically excluded” from...more
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently announced its intention to modify the 2017 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) General Permit for Construction Stormwater Discharges (2017 CGP). EPA...more
OVERVIEW - In the past year, federal circuit courts have already issued five decisions addressing the question of whether permitting obligations and other liability under the Clean Water Act (CWA) apply to leaking pits,...more
On August 9, 2018, the United States District Court for the Central District of California held that the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) is required to more specifically regulate certain types of...more
Ohio EPA has released proposed pretreatment and indirect discharge permit (IDP) rules (OAC 3745-3 and 3745-36, respectively). The existing pretreatment and IDP rules overlap with one another quite significantly, and the IDP...more
Call this one a case of misdirection, but an Appellate Opinion seems to simplify matters. If anything having to do with environmental law can be considered simple....more
The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality (“ADEQ”) and Waste Water Management, Inc. (“WWMI”) entered into a Consent Administrative Order (‘CAO”) addressing alleged violations of a Clean Water Act National Pollution...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) General Permit Remand Rule in the Federal Register on Dec. 9,...more
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has determined that, at this time, no additional regulations are needed to address stormwater discharges from forest roads under Section 402(p)(6) of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The...more
The Environmental Protection Agency issued a decision on July 5, 2016, that declined to regulate discharges from forest roads for regulation under Section 402 of the Clean Water Act. As such, it remains the case that...more