Articles

Yesterday, the EPA announced its intent to amend its Clean Water Act stormwater regulations governing runoff from forest roads and other silvicultural activities.  EPA’s action is the result of the Ninth Circuit’s decision in Northwest Environmental Defense Center v. Brown, for which a petition for certiorari is pending in the United S ...

The United States Supreme Court this Term will hear at least two cases arising under the Clean Water Act:  Decker v. Northwest Environmental Advocates, and Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council. The former concerns the legality of EPA’s regulation exempting owners and operators of forest roads from ob ...

Last month I wrote about a very peculiar case just argued this week in the United States Supreme Court—Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council—concerning the Clean Water Act’s regulation of stormwater.  The case is peculiar because all the parties and the federal government as amicus agree o ...

In case you haven’t had enough, the Federalist Society has published a podcast of me discussing Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. NRDC, a Clean Water Act case dealing with stormwater pollution, argued earlier this week. … ...

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council that the Clean Water Act does not regulate the mere flow of polluted water from an upstream “improved” segment to a downstream “unimproved” segment of the same water of the United States.  The Cou ...

Now available is a post-decision podcast I recorded for the Federalist Society, which goes into greater detail on why I believe that, from the perspective of the Clean Water Act practitioner, this decision is much ado about nothing. … ...

Today United States Senator Vitter (R-La), Ranking Member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, featured PLF’s case on behalf of John Duarte and Duarte Nursery against the Corps of Engineers on one of the Committee’s blogs.  Senator Vitter notes that this recent case in California paints a picture of what more Americans ...

The Montana Property Rights Conference will take place next week, on August 14 and August 15, at the Northern Hotel in Billings, Montana.  As a keynote speaker, I will open the conference at 1:00 p.m. with a discussion of environmental and land-use issues, including PLF’s United States Supreme Court win last year in Koontz v. … ...

The U.S. EPA and Army Corps of Engineers are attempting an unprecedented — and unconstitutional — power grab to extend the Clean Water Act (CWA) to cover “virtually any wet … spot in the country, including ditches, drains, seasonal puddle-like depressions, intermittent streams, ponds, impoundments, prairie potholes, and large ‘b ...