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Clean Water Act › Chevron Deference

The Clean Water Act is a United States federal statute enacted in 1972 to reduce levels of toxic substances in the nation's water supply and to prevent high levels of new contamination.  The CWA seeks to... more +
The Clean Water Act is a United States federal statute enacted in 1972 to reduce levels of toxic substances in the nation's water supply and to prevent high levels of new contamination.  The CWA seeks to accomplish its stated goals by preventing point and nonpoint pollution sources, assisting wastewater treatment facilities and maintaining wetlands. less -
Beveridge & Diamond PC

Clean Water Act Citizen Suits in the Spotlight: Solicitor General Calls for Supreme Court Review (Updated)

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This alert was originally published on June 3, 2025, and has been revised based on recent developments. Update: On June 30, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari Port of Tacoma v. Puget Soundkeeper Alliance, No....more

Beveridge & Diamond PC

Clean Water Act Citizen Suits in the Spotlight: Solicitor General Calls for Supreme Court Review

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Key Takeaways - Federal citizen suits are likely to become more frequent as the federal government decreases its enforcement efforts. Federal courts are split on whether Clean Water Act (CWA) citizen suits can enforce...more

Miller Starr Regalia

The Federal Clean Water Act In 2025: A Retracting Construction

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More than 50 years ago, the Federal Clean Water Act (CWA or Act) was enacted by Congress to protect the quality of the Nation’s waters. The scope of that protection has been evolving ever since. Until relatively recently, the...more

ArentFox Schiff

A Divided SCOTUS Invalidates Common Provisions of Clean Water Act Permits

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In the US Supreme Court’s first post-Chevron decision involving the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the Supreme Court found against EPA, invalidating ‘end result’ NPDES permit requirements....more

Epstein Becker & Green

Textualism Again Comes to the Fore, Albeit with Contradictory Views on the Court - SCOTUS Today

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Only a few readers of SCOTUS Today are lawyers who are professionally occupied with environmental matters. However, almost all of my readers are constantly occupied with administrative law matters, governed in the...more

Goldberg Segalla

Did San Francisco Awaken the Ghost of the Chevron Doctrine? The Supreme Court Weighs In

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During the first week of oral arguments of its new term, the U.S. Supreme Court heard City & County of San Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency. This case marks the court’s first look at the Clean Water Act following...more

Quarles & Brady LLP

The Future of Environmental Regulation after the Supreme Court Decisions in Loper Bright and Corner Post

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Just in time to celebrate our Nation’s birthday, the United States Supreme Court brought out its hammer to again chip away at the administrative state in two landmark decisions: Loper Bright Enterprises et al. v. Raimondo,...more

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Confronting Regulatory Fluidity in the Post-Maui and Post-Sackett World of Water Regulation

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Both regulators and the regulated community must remain alert to accommodate the constantly changing regulatory scheme created in the post-Sackett world. The application of Maui and Sackett in recent months confirms the...more

Mintz

This never-ending NIMBY challenge to the Vineyard Wind project illustrates that we may be winning renewable energy battles but...

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Over two years ago I wrote about a lawsuit filed by a Connecticut-based solar farm developer with a summer home in Martha's Vineyard seeking to enjoin the Vineyard Wind project off the Massachusetts coast. This particular...more

ArentFox Schiff

Fourth Circuit Holds Catch-and-Release Fishing Not Regulated by Federal Clean Water Act

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The “Major Questions Doctrine” (MQD) has been the breakout star of the last two terms at the US Supreme Court. Earlier this month, the Fourth Circuit used MQD in upholding the dismissal of a nongovernmental organization’s...more

McGlinchey Stafford

How the Sackett Decision Changed the Chevron Doctrine

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The Chevron doctrine is one of the most important principles of administrative law in the United States. It states that when a federal statute is ambiguous, courts should defer to the reasonable interpretation of the agency...more

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP

SCOTUS Whacks WOTUS, Reducing Protection of American Wetlands

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In Sackett v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a massive blow to EPA's ability to regulate wetlands under the Clean Water Act ("CWA"). Addressing the "nagging question" about the reaches of the CWA, Justice Alito, joined...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

SCOTUS Latest Clean Water Act Decision Raises More Questions About Chevron’s Future

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In its decision last week in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling that severely limits the federal government’s jurisdiction over wetlands and tributaries. Specifically,...more

ArentFox Schiff

Four Administrative Law Takeaways from the DC Circuit’s Recent Perchlorate Decision

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Crafting environmental regulations often takes time and substantive knowledge about complex technical and policy issues. Below, we draw some key administrative law takeaways from the DC Circuit’s May 9 decision in National...more

(ACOEL) | American College of Environmental...

2023 WOTUS Rule Enjoined in Texas and Idaho (Or “Here We Go Again”)

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On March 19, 2023, a federal district court in Texas granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting the January 2023 Revised Definition of Waters of the United States (2023 WOTUS rule) promulgated by Environmental Protection...more

Foley Hoag LLP - Environmental Law

EPA Proposes A Section 401 “Improvement Rule” — Now That’s a Low Bar

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Last week, EPA released its proposed “Clean Water Act Section 401 Water Quality Certification Improvement Rule”. The proposed rule would make a number of significant changes to the rule promulgated by EPA in 2020....more

Foley Hoag LLP - Environmental Law

More Evidence that Chevron Is Not a Liberal Plot

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November 26, 2019, Judge William Young ruled that discharges to groundwater are not subject to Clean Water Act jurisdiction, even if they ultimately reach surface waters that are unambiguously waters of the United States. He...more

Foley Hoag LLP - Environmental Law

More Sauce For the Chevron Goose

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Last week, EPA proposed revisions to its regulations governing the issuance of water quality certifications under § 401 of the Clean Water Act. The regulations are long-overdue and, notwithstanding the source, some of the...more

Williams Mullen

EPA’s Water Transfers Rule Resurrected, but For How Long?

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The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently resurrected EPA’s embattled Water Transfers Rule (“WTR”) in a case particularly important to municipal water suppliers and others engaged in interbasin...more

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Environmental Case Law Update

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“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date.” Many important environmental and administrative law decisions were reported by the federal and state courts over the past six months. The courts are dealing with very...more

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Supreme Court’s Environmental and Administrative Law Decisions in 2015-2016 Term

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This Advisory briefly reports on some of the significant U.S. Supreme Court actions from January through June 2016 related to environmental and administrative law. ...more

K&L Gates LLP

EPA’s Chesapeake Bay TMDL Survives Legal Challenge: Stricter Water Quality Regulation of Farms, Municipalities, Industry, and...

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On July 6, 2015, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit unanimously rejected a challenge brought by agricultural and builder groups to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay...more

Foley Hoag LLP - Environmental Law

A Federal Court Rules that Increased Conductivity Impairs a Stream — How Shocking!

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On Tuesday, Chief Judge Robert Chambers ruled that Fola Coal Company violated the Clean Water Act by discharging mine waste with sufficiently high levels of conductivity to cause or materially contribute to impairment of...more

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