The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board has drafted a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit for commercial, industrial, and institutional (CII) facilities. Our Environment, Land Use & Natural...more
The Arkansas Department of Energy & Environment - Division of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) and TD Granite & Marble (“TD”) entered into a February 21st Consent Administrative Order (“CAO”) addressing alleged violations of a...more
The Arkansas Department of Energy & Environment – Division of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) and Arkansas and Missouri Railroad Company (“AMRC”) entered into a February 20th Consent Administrative Order (“CAO”) addressing an...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
The Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment – Division of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) and Southark Disposals Group, LLC (“Southark”) entered into a May 17th Consent Administrative Order (“CAO”) addressing alleged...more
Regulated parties who comply with their permit sometimes get an unwelcome surprise. They meet with their state agency, make full disclosure about their discharges or emissions, and then the state agency makes decisions about...more
AB 377, entitled the “California Clean Water Act,” introduced by Assemblymember Rivas in February 2021, includes provisions to eliminate all “impaired waterways” and make all waters in California suitable for drinking,...more
The Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment - Division of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) and Cossatot Rock, LLC (“Cossatot“) entered into a January 21st Consent Administrative Order (“CAO”) addressing alleged violations...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 National Association of Clean Water Agencies (“NACWA”) and other municipalities filed an Amicus Brief in the pending Supreme Court of the United States case styled County of Maui v. Hawai’i Wildlife Fund, et al....more
For many facilities and construction sites, the routine practical problems arising from wet weather go with the territory. However, if stormwater management is compromised or if flooding and coastal storm surges occur, a...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
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
On August 16, 2016, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reached a settlement in Clean Water Act (CWA) lawsuits filed over its 2015 Multi-Sector General Permit (MSGP) for Stormwater Discharges from Industrial...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
Shortly after admonishing the Ninth Circuit for its strained interpretation of the Clean Water Act (“CWA”), the Supreme Court may be asked to repeat itself. On January 8, 2013, in Los Angeles County Flood Control District v....more
Late last month, we noted that a permittee may not rely on the permit shield defense unless it has clearly informed the permitting agency of the nature of its discharge. Now we see the flip side. In Wisconsin Resources...more
Those of us who do NPDES work know that enforcement, including citizen enforcement, against industrial point sources can often be all to straightforward. The plaintiff marches into court with a pile of the defendant’s...more
Urban storm water runoff has been recognized as one of the most significant sources of water pollution in the country. ...more
On May 8, 2013, the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board approved a new municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) permit that will have far-reaching impacts on both new development projects and existing facilities...more
On March 20, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court held in a 7-1 decision that Clean Water Act permits are not required for stormwater runoff from logging roads. The decision in Decker v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center defers...more
In a 7-1 decision overruling the Ninth Circuit, the U.S. Supreme Court today upheld the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”) long-standing interpretation that stormwater run-off from logging roads are exempt from NPDES...more
Yesterday, in a 7-1 decision with Justice Scalia the lone dissenter, the U.S. Supreme Court handed a major victory to the forest products industry. As it does so often, the Court reversed a Ninth Circuit ruling that had...more
On January 8, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court held unanimously in L.A. County Flood Control District v. NRDC that the flow of polluted stormwater from an improved portion of a navigable waterway into an unimproved portion of...more