On April 23, 2020, a divided Supreme Court ruled in County of Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund that the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) “requires a permit when there is a direct discharge from a point source into navigable waters or when there is the functional equivalent of a direct discharge.” The Court reversed and […]
This blog post was written by Katherine “Kate” Sanford who worked with WSMT as a summer intern from June 1 through August 10, 2016. On August 5, 2015, Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) contractors inadvertently broke through a retaining wall at the closed Gold King Mine, causing over 3 million gallons of acidic, metal-laden water to […]
On June 27, 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the final version of a long-anticipated rule defining the scope of the agency’s power to regulate waters under the Clean Water Act. The rule defines what constitutes a “water of the United States” for purposes of regulation under the Clean Water Act. The publication finalizes […]