Legal advocacy is a central component of NACWA’s mission to advance national clean water advocacy goals on behalf of NACWA Member Agencies.  NACWA participates in litigation nationwide to protect the legal rights of Association members, ensure the national perspective of the municipal clean water community is aggressively represented, and advocate for the establishment of sound legal precedent in clean water matters.  NACWA litigates in both federal and state courts in a variety of roles, including as a petitioner, intervenor, and amicus curiae.  Please click on the names of the cases below to get more detailed information and analysis on the litigation and NACWA’s participation, as well as access relevant court filings.

For a condensed overview of all active NACWA litigation, see the Litigation Tracking Spreadsheet .  Refer to the Clean Water Acronym/Abbreviation List   for abbreviations that appear in the spreadsheet or are commonly used in clean water litigation.

Active Cases

Last Updated: January 10, 2017

NPDES Permit Issues

• Center for Regulatory Reasonableness v. EPA (Challenge to EPA’s regulatory approach on blending)
• Hawaii Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit (Case No. 15-17447) (Case addressing whether discharges to groundwater that migrate to navigable waters require an NPDES permit under conduit theory)
  
• Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition et al. v. Fola Coal Company (Case No. 16-1024) (Challenge addressing the CWA permit shield defense and narrative water quality criteria)
• Southern California Alliance of Publicly Owned Treatment Works v. EPA (Challenge to EPA's efforts to impose certain testing requirements for whole effluent toxicity)

 

Water Transfers

• Catskill Mountains Chapter of Trout Unlimited Inc., et al. v. U.S. EPA (Appeal from lower federal court decision vacating key elements of EPA’s 2008 Water Transfers Rule)

 

Water Quality Criteria/Standards

• Gulf Restoration Network v. EPA (Challenge to EPA denial of petition requesting federal numeric nutrient criteria and TMDLs for all waters in Mississippi River Basin and Northern Gulf of Mexico)
• Upper Missouri Waterkeeper v. EPA (Challenge to EPA's approval of a general nutrient variance)

 

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Recently Completed Cases

 

Air Quality/Climate Change Issues

• Center for Biological Diversity, et al., v. EPA (Challenge to EPA’s deferral of CO2 emissions from biogenic sources, including POTWs, from federal greenhouse gas regulations)

 

Biosolids

• Gilbert v. Synagro (case addressing whether land application of biosolids is an agricultural activity protected under Pennsylvania’s right to farm act)
• County of Kern, CA v. City of Los Angeles (Appeal of a local ordinance banning the land application of biosolids)
• NACWA v. EPA (Challenge to EPA’s final Sewage Sludge Incinerator (SSI) Rule setting new air emissions standards for SSI units)
• Eco Systems Operations, et al. v. EPA(Litigation over EPA’s final Non-Hazardous Secondary Materials Rule)
• State of Washington v. Wahkiakum County (Appeal of a local ordinance banning the land application of biosolids)

 

Consent Decrees

• United States and the State of Illinois v. Metropolitan Water Reclamation District of Greater Chicago (Appeal by environmental activist groups to federal court approval of wet weather consent decree successfully negotiated by MWRD with federal and state regulators in late 2011)

 

MS4 Permits/Fees

• DeKalb County v. United States (Litigation in federal Court of Claims to recover unpaid stormwater fees from federal govt. facilities)
• Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. NRDC (Appeal to U.S. Supreme Court over what constitutes a stormwater “discharge” under the Clean Water Act and requires compliance with an NPDES permit)
• Maryland Department of the Environment et al. v. Anacostia Riverkeeper et al. (Legal challenge on whether CWA requires MS4 permits to mandate "strict compliance" with water quality standards)
• Natural Resources Defense Council v. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation(Legal challenge to New York’s General Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System Permit)
• Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District v. Bath Township, Ohio. et al.(Legal challenge to local municipal stormwater fee program and use of impervious surface-based billing approach)
• United States v. Cities of Vancouver and Renton (Federal litigation in Washington State addressing whether 2011 Stormwater Fee Amendment to the CWA applies to municipal stormwater charges assessed prior to 2011)
• Virginia DOT, et al. v. US EPA (Federal litigation in Virginia challenging an EPA “flow TMDL” for municipal stormwater discharge)
• Zweig v. MSD St. Louis (Appeal of Missouri state trial court decision invalidating a municipal stormwater fee program based on use of impervious surface)

 

NPDES Permit Issues

• City of Homedale, Idaho, Environmental Appeals Board Administrative Appeal (Challenge to EPA issued permit that allows discharges of total phosphorus at levels that exceed the number of pounds per day allowable under a total maximum daily load)
• Southern Appalachian Mountain Stewards v. A&G Coal Corp.  (Appeal of a ruling that a permittee must have actually disclosed a pollutant in its NPDES permit application in order to invoke the permit shield defense) 
• Upper Blackstone Environmental Appeals Board Administrative Appeal(Appeal of NPDES permit that included satellite collection systems as co-permittees with a regional wastewater treatment utility)
• Southern California Alliance of Publicly Owned Treatment Works v. EPA (Challenge to the application of certain testing requirements for whole effluent toxicity)

 

TMDLs

• American Farm Bureau, et al. v. EPA (Challenge to the final TMDL for the Chesapeake Bay)
• Fairfield County, Ohio v. State of Ohio (Permit appeal addressing whether inability to challenge TMDL allocation before it is used to derive permit limit is a violation of due process)

 

Water Transfers

• Friends of the Everglades v. South Florida Water Management District (Appeal of requirement for NPDES for transfers of natural, untreated water)

 

Water Quality Criteria/Standards

• Food and Water Watch, et al. v. EPA (Challenge to water quality trading provisions in final Chesapeake Bay TMDL)
• Upper Blackstone Water Pollution Abatement District v. EPA(Appeal of federal NPDES discharge permit containing inappropriate nutrient limits)

 

 

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Completed cases are available here!

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