Rewriting the Rules: The Supreme Court's Landmark Decision on Clean Water Act Permits
H2-OWOW! – A Reflective Conversation with John Goodin, Former Director of EPA’s Office of Wetlands, Oceans, and Watersheds – Reflections on Water Podcast
Reflections on Sackett - Reflections on Water Podcast
On-Demand Webinar | Linear Infrastructure Redux: Adapting Your Projects to Meet the New Regulatory Climate
The Association of Clean Water Administrators (“ACWA”) submitted May 15th comments to the Untied States Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ( collectively, “EPA”) regarding potential revisions to...more
In this episode of Digging Into Land Use Law, Byron Gee, Willis Hon and Sara Johnson review in detail the recent Supreme Court opinion in City and County of San Francisco vs. EPA and its implications for Clean Water Act...more
In its recent decision in San Francisco v. EPA, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a Ninth Circuit interpretation of the Clean Water Act (“CWA”), the second case in just two years where the Court has disagreed with the EPA’s...more
On March 4, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a ruling that prohibits the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA” or “the Agency”) from setting qualitative limits based on the condition of the “receiving waters” that...more
On March 4, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in the case City and County of San Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency, in which it held that “end-result” requirements routinely imposed by the U.S....more
In a 5-4 ruling on March 4, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lacks authority to impose Clean Water Act (CWA) conditions in National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)...more
The Supreme Court of the United States issued one decision today: City and County of San Francisco v. EPA, No. 23-753: This case concerns the interpretation of the federal Clean Water Act (“CWA”) and its National...more
A United States District Court (D. Massachusetts) (“Court”) addressed in a February 25th Memorandum and Order (“Memorandum”) an issue arising pursuant to a Clean Water Act citizen-suit action. See Blackstone Headwaters...more
In Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Supreme Court held that Clean Water Act-regulated “waters of the United States” (“WOTUS”) are limited to relatively permanent bodies of water connected to traditional...more
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) and Waste Recycling (“WR”) entered into an August 29th Expedited Settlement Agreement (“ESA”) addressing alleged violations of the Clean Water Act stormwater...more
Welcome to the November edition of Nutter's Environment & Energy Insights, a monthly update of current trends in environment and energy law. What a Second Trump Presidency Could Mean for Massachusetts' Energy and Environment...more
Sam Hess of Inside EPA and many others are writing about EPA's Halloween Trick or Treat – the publication of a draft Clean Water Act NPDES General Permit that would apply to “commercial, industrial and institutional”...more
Today the United States Supreme Court heard from lawyers representing the City and County of San Francisco and lawyers for the United States Environmental Protection Agency on the question of whether a “narrative standard”...more
As our understanding of the environment and anthropogenic impact grows, protection efforts increasingly spawn regulation. Media coverage of perceived harms to health and the environment and well-funded advocacy by...more
As predicted in February, our nation's highest court is about to hear its third Clean Water Act in four years. Anyone who doubts the outcome of this case hasn't read the other two Supreme Court opinions and that brings to...more
This week our nation's highest court was scheduled to discuss whether to hear the City and County of San Francisco's appeal of a split Ninth Circuit decision upholding an EPA NPDES permit issued to the City and County...more
The United States House of Representatives voted on a partisan-basis to pass H.R. 7023 which is titled: Creating Confidence in Clean Water Permitting Act....more
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
Earlier this month, in Lewis v. United States the 5th Circuit issued a decision interpreting the Supreme Court’s decision in Sackett v. EPA. The 5th Circuit decision is a model of clarity and demonstrates what I’ll call the...more
You may have thought the movie Oppenheimer would be the only blockbuster involving Los Alamos, New Mexico this year. But now EPA has invoked its rarely used Residual Designation Authority under section 402 of the Clean Water...more
Just before the Thanksgiving holiday EPA issued draft guidance regarding when a discharge of a “pollutant” to groundwater is the “functional equivalent” of a discharge to a Water of the United States requiring a NPDES permit...more
EPA is publishing its final rule specifying the role of States and Tribes in the Federal licensing or permitting of activities that may result in a "discharge" into a "Water of the United States". Like EPA's recent tenth...more
On August 30, 2023, the United States Corps of Engineers (Corps) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a prepublication version of their final rulemaking amending their previous definition of “waters of the...more
Earlier this week, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed EPA’s NPDES permit issued to San Francisco’s Oceanside sewer system. San Francisco had challenged the permit on the ground that EPA does not have authority to...more
This week Massachusetts Federal District Court Judge Richard Stearns dismissed two counts of the Conservation Law Foundation's and Charles River Watershed Association's lawsuit against EPA and stayed until September of next...more