RECOMMENDED FOR FULL-TEXT PUBLICATION

Pursuant to Sixth Circuit I.O.P. 32.1(b)

File Name: 18a0214p.06

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

TENNESSEE CLEAN WATER NETWORK; TENNESSEE 

SCENIC RIVERS ASSOCIATION,

Plaintiffs-Appellees,

v.

TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY,

Defendant - Appellant.

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No. 17-6155

Appeal from the United States District Court

for the Middle District of Tennessee at Nashville.

No. 3:15-cv-00424—Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., District Judge.

Argued: August 2, 2018

Decided and Filed: September 24, 2018

Before: SUHRHEINRICH, CLAY, and GIBBONS, Circuit Judges.

_________________

COUNSEL

ARGUED: David D. Ayliffe, TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY, Knoxville, Tennessee, 

for Appellant. Frank S. Holleman, III, SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER, 

Chapel Hill, North Carolina, for Appellees. ON BRIEF: David D. Ayliffe, James S. Chase, F. 

Regina Koho, Lane E. McCarty, TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY, Knoxville, Tennessee, 

for Appellant. Frank S. Holleman, III, Nicholas S. Torrey, SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL 

LAW CENTER, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Anne E. Passino, SOUTHERN 

ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER, Nashville, Tennessee, Michael S. Kelley, Briton S. 

Collins, KENNERLY, MONTGOMERY & FINLEY, P.C., Knoxville, Tennessee, Austin D. 

Gerken, Jr., SOUTHERN ENVIRONMENTAL LAW CENTER, Asheville, North Carolina, for 

Appellees. Douglas H. Green, Margaret K. Fawal, VENABLE LLP, Washington, D.C., Eric M. 

Palmer, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF ALABAMA, Montgomery, Alabama, 

Carlos C. Smith, Larry L. Cash, Mark W. Smith, MILLER & MARTIN PLLC, Chattanooga, 

Tennessee, Robert F. Parsley, M. Heith Frost, MILLER & MARTIN PLLC, Chattanooga, 

>
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 2

Tennessee, Nash E. Long, Brent A. Rosser, HUNTON & WILLIAMS LLP, Charlotte, North 

Carolina, Elbert Lin, HUNTON & WILLIAMS LLP, Richmond, Virginia, F. William Brownell, 

HUNTON & WILLIAMS LLP, Washington, D.C., Roger P. Sugarman, Scott M. Doran, 

William J. Levendusky, KEGLER BROWN HILL + RITTER CO., LPA, Columbus, Ohio, Reed 

W. Super, SUPER LAW GROUP, LLC, New York, New York, Angela M. Garrone, 

SOUTHERN ALLIANCE FOR CLEAN ENERGY, Knoxville, Tennessee, Emily B. Vann, 

OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF TENNESSEE, Nashville, Tennessee, Leah J. 

Tulin, OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MARYLAND, Baltimore, Maryland, for 

Amici Curiae.

SUHRHEINRICH, J., delivered the opinion of the court in which GIBBONS, J., joined. 

CLAY, J. (pp. 17–27), delivered a separate dissenting opinion.

_________________

OPINION

_________________

SUHRHEINRICH, Circuit Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

Defendant Tennessee Valley Authority (“TVA” or “Defendant”) operates a coal-fired 

electricity-generating plant, the Gallatin Fossil Plant (“Gallatin plant”), on a part of the 

Cumberland River known as Old Hickory Lake, a popular recreation spot. The Gallatin plant 

generates wanted electricity (which it supplies to approximately 565,000 households in the 

greater Nashville area), as well as unwanted waste byproducts, in particular coal combustion 

residuals (“CCRs”) or coal ash. The plant disposes of the coal ash by “sluicing” (mixing with 

lots of water) and allowing the coal ash solids to settle in a series of unlined man-made coal ash 

ponds adjacent to the river. The Gallatin plant has a permit to discharge some of this coal 

combustion wastewater, which contains heavy metals and other pollutants, into the river through 

a pipe, known as Outfall 001. Other wastewater is allegedly discharged through leaks from the 

ponds through the groundwater into the Cumberland River, a waterway protected by the Clean 

Water Act (“CWA”), 33 U.S.C. § 1251, et seq. The CWA indisputably regulates the first type of 

discharge. The issue on appeal is whether the CWA also regulates the latter type of discharge.

After a bench trial, the district court found that TVA violated the CWA because its coal 

ash ponds at the Gallatin plant leaks pollutants through groundwater that is “hydrologically 
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 3

connected” to the Cumberland River without a permit. This theory of liability has been labeled 

the “hydrological connection theory” by the Federal Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”). 

As explained in the companion decision also issued today, Kentucky Waterways All., v. Kentucky 

Utilities Co., No. 18-5115, --- F. 3d ---, (6th Cir. -- , 2018) (“Kentucky Waterways”), we find no 

support for this theory in either the text or the history of the CWA and related environmental 

laws. We therefore hold that the district court erred in granting relief under the CWA.

II. BACKGROUND

A. Statutory Background 

Some background on the CWA is helpful. As explained in Kentucky Waterways, 

Congress passed the CWA in 1972 with the stated purpose of “restor[ing] and maintain[ing] the 

. . . Nation’s waters.” 33 U.S.C. § 1251(a). To that end, the CWA requires a permit to “discharge 

. . . any pollutant.” Id. §§ 1311(a), 1342(a). The discharge of a pollutant is defined as “any 

addition of any pollutant to navigable waters from any point source.” Id. § 1362(12)(A). 

Navigable waters are broadly defined as “the waters of the United States.” Id. § 1362(7). And a 

point source is a “discernible, confined and discrete conveyance.” Id. § 1362(14). These permits 

are issued pursuant to the CWA’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”). 

Id. §1342. Therefore, in order to add a pollutant to the waters of the United States via a 

conveyance, an NPDES permit is required.

The CWA overhauled the 1948 Federal Water Pollution Control Act and the Water 

Quality Act of 1965 by shifting the focal point of liability from measuring excess pollution levels 

in the receiving water to capping effluent limitations from a discharging source. See S. Rep. No. 

92-414 (1971), as reprinted in 1972 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3668, 3675 (“Under [the CWA] the basis of 

pollution prevention and elimination will be the application of effluent limitations. Water quality 

will be a measure of program effectiveness and performance, not a means of elimination and 

enforcement. . . . With effluent limits, the [EPA] . . . need not search for a precise link between 

pollution and water quality.”).

With the CWA, Congress also sought to “recognize, preserve, and protect the primary 

responsibilities and rights of States to prevent, reduce, and eliminate pollution [and] to plan the 
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 4

development and use . . . of land and water resources.” 33 U.S.C. § 1251(b). The CWA 

accomplishes this by allowing the states to administer the CWA’s NPDES permitting program 

themselves, provided their regulations are at least as stringent as the federal limitations, id. 

§ 1342(b)-(d), and most notably, by drawing a line between point-source pollution and nonpointsource pollution, id. § 1362(12),(14). Point-source pollution is subject to the NPDES 

requirements, and thus, to federal regulation under the CWA. But all other forms of pollution 

are considered nonpoint-source pollution and are within the states’ regulatory domain. See id.

§§ 1314(f), 1362(12); see also Nat’l Wildlife Fed’n v. Consumers Power Co., 862 F.2d 580, 588 

(6th Cir. 1988). Similarly, the CWA is restricted to regulation of pollutants discharged into 

navigable waters, id. § 1362(12), leaving the states to regulate pollution of non-navigable waters.

The EPA has the power under the CWA to issue orders and to bring civil and criminal 

actions against those in violation of its provisions. Id. § 1319(a)-(c). The CWA also allows 

private citizens to file civil actions against violators, provided they give the EPA, the relevant 

state, and the alleged wrongdoer sixty-days’ notice prior to filing the lawsuit. Id. § 1365(a)-(b);

see Sierra Club v. Hamilton Cty. Bd. of Cty. Comm’rs, 504 F.3d 634, 637 (6th Cir. 2007) (noting 

private citizen suits “provide a second level of enforcement” and serve as a check on state and 

federal governments, who bear the primary enforcement responsibility for prosecuting CWA 

violations).

We have held that a CWA claim has five elements: “(1) a pollutant must be (2) added

(3) to navigable waters (4) from (5) a point source.” Consumers Power Co., 862 F.2d 580 at 583 

(quoting Nat’l Wildlife Fed’n v. Gorsuch, 693 F.2d 156, 165 (D.C. Cir. 1982)).

B. Factual Background

As noted, the Gallatin plant is adjacent to the Cumberland River, a “water[] of the United 

States.” 33 U.S.C. § 1362(7). TVA has two coal ash ponds or impoundments at the Gallatin 

plant: the Non-Registered Site (“NRS”) and the Ash Pond Complex (“Complex”). The NRS is 

closed, and the Complex is in the process of being closed.
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 5

1. The NRS 

From 1956 to 1970, the Gallatin plant sluiced CCRs to the NRS, an unlined 65-acre site 

along the western edge of the river. The NRS is situated atop alluvium (loose soil, silt, clay). By 

1973, TVA had dewatered the NRS. TVA closed the NRS in 1998, pursuant to the State of 

Tennessee’s solid waste program. For this reason the NRS does not have an NPDES permit. 

Instead, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (“TDEC”) regulates the 

“closed dry ash disposal area” according to its solid waste landfill standards, which include 

ongoing groundwater monitoring. See Tenn. Code Ann. § 68-211 et seq. Approximately 

2.3 million cubic yards of coal ash are stored at the NRS.

Based on expert testimony from both sides, the district court found that “it does appear 

more likely than not that some portions of [the NRS as well as the Complex] penetrate the water 

table.” The court concluded that the NRS is contaminated; that it leaked historically; that there 

was “no evidence to suggest that the ‘closure’ of the site . . . wholly stopped the leaking.”

2. The Complex

After 1970, TVA began treating its CCR in a series of unlined ponds, collectively known 

as the Complex. The ponds, which cover roughly 476 acres, treat sluiced wastewater by 

allowing CCRs to settle before releasing wastewater to the Cumberland River through Outfall 

001. Approximately 11.5 million cubic yards of coal ash are stored at the Complex today. The 

parties agree that the Complex sits atop karst terrain, a landscape characterized by underground 

sinkholes, fissures, and caves caused by water-dissolving limestone. See 40 C.F.R. § 257.53. 

Groundwater flows easily through the factures and other conduits created by the dissolved rock.

Historically, the Complex leaked significant amounts of pollutants into the river. 

Between 1970 and 1978, approximately 27 billion gallons of coal ash wastewater flowed directly 

from the Complex into the karst aquifer and then into the Cumberland River. The district court 

found it “beyond dispute that sinkholes have been recently discovered in the area[] of the 

Gallatin plant site” and would likely continue to form, given the nature of karst terrain. Thus, the 

court concluded that “[i]t is simply implausible, based on the evidence before the Court, that the 
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 6

Complex has not continued to, and will not continue to, suffer at least some leaking through karst 

features.” 

3. The Permit

In 1976, the EPA issued an NPDES permit authorizing the Gallatin plant to discharge 

wastewater from the Complex to the Cumberland River through Outfall 001. Today, TDEC 

issues and oversees the federal permitting process for the Gallatin plant.1

TDEC issued the permit in question (“Permit”) on June 26, 2012,2 after a public 

comment period. See 40 C.F.R. § 124.8 (requiring the EPA or state authority to issue a fact 

sheet for every draft permit setting forth “the principal facts and the significant factual, legal, 

methodological and policy questions considered in preparing the draft permit”); Tenn. Comp. R. 

& Regs. 0400-40-05-.06 (“Notice and Public Participation”). The Permit establishes effluent 

limitations, as well as monitoring and reporting requirements for certain pollutants within the 

wastewater.

Two additional provisions of the Permit are relevant to this lawsuit: (1) the “removedsubstances” provision, which prohibits “[s]ludge or any other material removed by any treatment 

works” from causing “pollution of any surface or subsurface waters,” and (2) the “sanitary-sewer 

overflow” provision, which prohibits the “discharge to land or water of wastes from any portion 

of the . . . treatment system other than through permitted outfalls.”

On August 21, 2014 (JX 248), and again on, April 25, 2016 (JX 249, 250), TDEC 

deemed TVA in compliance with the Permit.

4. Procedural History

Plaintiffs, two Tennessee conservation groups whose members use and enjoy Old 

Hickory Lake, saw the matter differently. Dissatisfied with the State of Tennessee’s 

 

1The EPA delegated its permitting authority to TDEC in 1986. TDEC issued its first NPDES permit to 

TVA for the Gallatin plant, in 1993.

2The Permit expired on May 31, 2017, and was administratively continued until a new permit was issued. 

On May 1, 2018, TDEC issued a renewed NPDES Permit for the Gallatin plant. It became effective June 1, 2018, 

and is valid for five years.
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 7

enforcement efforts, they brought this CWA citizen suit on April 14, 2015, under to 33 U.S.C. 

§ 1365, alleging that TVA violated the CWA and the Permit based on flows from the NRS and 

the Complex through hydrologically connected groundwater to the Cumberland River.3

On August 4, 2017, the district court entered judgment for Plaintiffs following a bench 

trial. First, the court ruled as a matter of law that the CWA applies to discharges of pollutants 

from a point source through hydrologically connected groundwater to navigable waters where 

the connection is “direct, immediate, and can generally be traced.” The district court held that 

the NRS is a point source because it “channel[s] the flow of pollutants . . . by forming a discrete, 

unlined concentration of coal ash,” and that the Complex is also a point source because it is “a 

series of discernible, confined, and discrete ponds that receive wastewater, treat that wastewater, 

and ultimately convey it to the Cumberland River.”

The court then found as a matter of fact that both the NRS and the Complex are 

hydrologically connected to the Cumberland River by groundwater. As to the NRS, the court 

held that “[f]aced with an impoundment that has leaked in the past and no evidence of any reason 

that it would have stopped leaking, the Court has no choice but to conclude that the [NRS] has 

continued to and will continue to leak coal ash waste into the Cumberland River, through 

rainwater vertically penetrating the Site, groundwater laterally penetrating the Site, or both.”

The district court similarly found that historical evidence established that the Complex 

leaked. The court stated that “none of the science presented was capable of definitively 

identifying when the relevant pollutants entered the water,” and that the record was “silent with 

regard to detailed, credible evidence of whether the undisputed historical leakage is capable of 

justifying pollutant concentrations in the amounts observed today.” However, the court decided 

that “[o]n balance . . . the evidence preponderates toward concluding that the discharges from the 

 

3On January 7, 2015, the State of Tennessee filed an original enforcement action under applicable state 

statutes, the Tennessee Solid Waste Disposal Act and the Tennessee Water Quality Control Act, in state court. See 

State of Tenn, et al. v. TVA, No. 15-0023-IV (Davidson Cty. Chanc. Ct. Jan. 7, 2015). Plaintiffs intervened in that 

action. The state action remains pending, although TVA removed it to federal court in August 2017. See Slate ex 

rel. Slatery v. TVA, No. 3:17-cv-01139, ECF No. 1 (M.D. Tenn. Aug. 19, 2017).

In the present case the district court applied CWA’s diligent prosecution bar, see 33 U.S.C. 

§ 1365(b)(1)(B), and limited the trial’s scope to the allegations it deemed non-overlapping with the state 

enforcement action.
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 8

. . . Complex are either ongoing or intermittent and recurring.” The court therefore held that “the 

unanimous expert testimony is that sinkholes and other drainage features in karst terrain are not 

mere relics of some past geological event. Rather, the physical properties of the terrain itself 

make such areas prone to the continued development of ever newer sinkholes or other karst 

features.” Thus, based on the contaminants flowing from the NRS and the Complex, the court 

found TVA to be in violation of the CWA. The district court further concluded that karst-related 

leakage from the Complex violated the Permit’s removed-substances and sanitary-sewer 

overflow provisions.

As a remedy the court ordered TVA to “fully excavate” the coal ash in the Complex and 

the NRS (13.8 million cubic yards in total) and relocate it to a lined facility, rejecting TVA’s 

proposal to dewater and put a cap on the unlined impoundments (“closure-in-place”).4 Although 

acknowledging that the burden of closure-by-removal “may be great,” the court felt that it was 

“the only adequate resolution to an untenable situation that has gone on for far too long.” 

Because of the costs associated with the injunctive remedy, the court did not assess civil 

penalties against TVA.

TVA appeals, arguing that the district court (1) erred in holding that the CWA’s 

prohibition of unpermitted point source discharges applies to pollutants that migrate through 

groundwater to navigable waters; (2) lacked authority to override the TDEC’s regulatory 

decision not to impose NPDES liability for seepage and leakage of coal ash leachate through 

groundwater at the Gallatin plant in the Permit; and (3) abused its discretion in ordering 

complete excavation and relocation of the 13.8 million cubic yards of coal ash stored at the 

Gallatin plant.

III. ANALYSIS

We review a district court’s decision to grant a permanent injunction “under several 

distinct standards.” S. Cent. Power Co. v. Int’l Bhd. of Elec. Workers, Local Union 2359, 186 

 

4Closure-in-place involves dewatering an impoundment and capping it with a geosynthetic liner, borrow 

material, soil, and vegetation to prevent water from flowing into and through it. Closure-by-removal involves 

dewatering the CCR, excavating it, drying it sufficiently to move it, and then moving it to a permitted and lined 

landfill. A third option, “on-site closure,” strikes a middle ground: it requires removal to a lined impoundment at the 

same location.
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 9

F.3d 733, 737 (6th Cir. 1999). “Factual findings are reviewed under the clearly erroneous 

standard, legal conclusions are reviewed de novo, and the scope of injunctive relief is reviewed 

for abuse of discretion.” Id. As always, review of statutory construction is de novo. Bowling 

Green v. Martin Land. Dev. Co., 561 F.3d 556, 558 (6th Cir. 2009).

A. Discharges from the NRS and the Complex

TVA first challenges the district court’s ruling “that a cause of action based on an 

unauthorized point source discharge may be brought under the CWA based on discharges 

through groundwater, if the hydrologic connection between the source of the pollutants and 

navigable waters is direct, immediate, and can generally be traced.” TVA contends that the 

district court impermissibly expanded CWA liability beyond what Congress authorized, and 

created an unnecessary conflict with regulation of coal ash under the Resource Conservation and 

Recovery Act, (“RCRA”), 42 U.S.C. § 6901 et seq., and the CCR Rule, promulgated under 

RCRA, 80 Fed. Reg. 21,302 (Apr. 17, 2015).

1. Text and Structure of the CWA

TVA claims that the text and structure of the CWA demonstrate that the phrase 

“discharge of pollutants” excludes the migration of pollutants through groundwater. Plaintiffs 

maintain that the district court correctly concluded that the NRS and the Complex are point 

sources that add coal ash pollutants to the Cumberland River through groundwater with a direct 

hydrologic connection to the Cumberland River.5 In finding TVA in violation of the CWA, the 

district court made two legal conclusions: first, that coal ash ponds are “point sources”; and 

second, that surface water pollution via hydrologically connected groundwater is actionable 

under the CWA. Because we conclude that the hydrological connection theory is not a valid 

theory of liability, we reverse the district court’s finding of liability here.6 

 

5Unlike the plaintiffs in Kentucky Waterways, Plaintiffs here do not argue that groundwater itself is a point 

source.

6Although we do not base our decision today on TVA’s first argument, we note that the Fourth Circuit 

recently held that a landfill and settling pond did not serve as point sources simply because they allowed arsenic 

from coal ash to leach into groundwater and then to navigable waters. See Sierra Club v. Va. Elec. & Power Co., 

No. 17-1952, --- F.3d ---, 2018 WL 4343513 (4th Cir. Sept. 12, 2018):
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 10

As we explain in Kentucky Waterways,

7

[t]he backbone of [the] argument in favor of the hydrological connection theory is 

that the relevant CWA provision does not contain the word “directly.” Because it 

only prohibits the discharge of pollutants “to navigable waters from any point 

source,” 33 U.S.C. § 1362(12)(A), [proponents] argue that the CWA allows for 

 

We conclude that while arsenic from the coal ash stored on Dominion’s site was found to 

have reached navigable waters—having been leached from the coal ash by rainwater and 

groundwater and ultimately carried by groundwater into navigable waters—that simple causal link 

does not fulfill the Clean Water Act’s requirement that the discharge be from a point source. By its 

carefully defined terms, the Clean Water Act limits its regulation under § 1311(a) to discharges 

from “any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance.” 33 U.S.C. § 1362(14) (emphasis 

added). The definition includes, “but [is] not limited to[,] any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, 

well, discrete fissure, container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, or vessel or 

other floating craft.” Id.; see also Consol. Coal Co. v. Costle, 604 F.2d 239, 249–50 (4th Cir. 

1979), rev’d in part sub nom. EPA v. Nat’l Crushed Stone Ass’n, 449 U.S. 64, 101 S.Ct. 295, 66 

L.Ed.2d 268 (1980) (finding that “discharges which are pumped, siphoned or drained” fall within 

the definition of discharges from a “point source”); Appalachian Power, 545 F.2d at 1373 

(concluding that “point source” pollution does not include “unchanneled and uncollected surface 

waters”). At its core, the Act’s definition makes clear that some facility must be involved that 

functions as a discrete, not generalized, “conveyance.”

“Conveyance” is a well-understood term; it requires a channel or medium—i.e., a 

facility—for the movement of something from one place to another. See Webster’s Third New 

International Dictionary 499 (1961); The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language

291–92 (1976); see also S. Fla. Water Mgmt. Dist. v. Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, 541 U.S. 95, 

105, 124 S.Ct. 1537, 158 L.Ed.2d 264 (2004) (“[A] point source need not be the original source of 

the pollutant; it need only convey the pollutant to ‘navigable waters’ ” (emphasis added)). If no 

such conveyance produces the discharge at issue, the discharge would not be regulated by the 

Clean Water Act, though it might be by the RCRA, which covers and regulates the storage of solid 

waste, including coal ash, and its effect on groundwater. 

2018 WL 4343513, at *5. The court felt that 

[t]his understanding of the Clean Water Act’s point-source requirement is consistent with 

the larger scheme of pollution regulation enacted by Congress. In regulating discharges of 

pollutants from point sources, Congress clearly intended to target the measurable discharge of 

pollutants. Not only is this revealed by the definitional text of “point source,” but it is also 

manifested in the effluent limitation enforcement scheme that the Clean Water Act employs. The 

National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System Program and § 1311’s enforcement scheme 

specifically rely on “effluent limitation[s]”—restrictions on the “quantities, rates, and 

concentrations” of pollutants discharged into navigable waters. 33 U.S.C. § 1362(11) (defining 

“effluent limitation”). And state-federal permitting programs under the Clean Water Act apply 

these precise, numeric limitations to discrete outfalls and other “point sources,” see [EPA v. 

California ex rel. Res. Control Bd., 426 U.S. [200,] 205–08 . . . (1976), at which compliance can 

be readily monitored. When a source works affirmatively to convey a pollutant, the concentration 

of the pollutant and the rate at which it is discharged by that conveyance can be measured. But 

when the alleged discharge is diffuse and not the product of a discrete conveyance, that task is 

virtually impossible. 

Id. at *6.

7

In Kentucky Waterways, the district court dismissed the plaintiffs’ CWA claim, rejecting their argument 

that pollution via hydrologically connected groundwater could support CWA liability.
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 11

pollutants to travel from a point source through nonpoint sources en route to 

navigable waters. The CWA’s text suggests otherwise.

First, the guidelines by which a CWA-regulated party must abide—the 

heart of the CWA’s regulatory power—are known as “effluent limitations.” 

33 U.S.C. § 1362(11); §1314(b) These are caps on the quantities of pollutants 

that may be discharged from a point source and are prescribed on an industry-byindustry basis. See 33 U.S.C. § 1314(b). The CWA defines effluent limitations 

as restrictions on the amount of pollutants that may be “discharged from point 

sources into navigable waters.” Id. § 1362(11) (emphasis added). The term 

“into” indicates directness. It refers to a point of entry. See Into, Webster's Third 

New International Dictionary, Unabridged. 2018.. Web. 22 Aug. 2018. (“[E]ntry, 

introduction, insertion.”); Into, Oxford English Dictionary (2d ed. 1989) 

(“Expressing motion to a position within a space or thing: To point within the 

limits of; to the interior of; so as to enter.”) (emphasis added). Thus, for a point 

source to discharge into navigable waters, it must dump directly into those 

navigable waters—the phrase “into” leaves no room for intermediary mediums to 

carry the pollutants. 

Moreover, the CWA addresses only pollutants that are added “to

navigable waters from any point source.” 33 U.S.C. § 1362(12) (emphasis 

added). Accordingly, the CWA requires two things in order for pollution to 

qualify as a “discharge of a pollutant”: (1) the pollutant must make its way to a 

navigable water (2) by virtue of a point-source conveyance. 

Id. at ---.

Like the defendant utility company in Kentucky Waterways, TVA “is discharging 

pollutants into the groundwater and the groundwater is adding pollutants to” the Cumberland 

River. Id. “But groundwater is not a point source. Thus, when the pollutants are discharged to 

the river, they are not coming from a point source; they are coming from groundwater which is a 

nonpoint-source conveyance. The CWA has no say over that conduct.” Id. For this reason, any 

alleged leakages into the groundwater are not a violation of the CWA.

Also similar to the plaintiffs in Kentucky Waterways Alliance, Plaintiffs here rely on 

Justice Scalia’s statement in Rapanos v. United States, 547 U.S. 715 (2006) that “[t]he [CWA] 

does not forbid the ‘addition of any pollutant directly to navigable waters from any point source,’ 

but rather the addition of any pollutant to navigable waters.’” Id. at 743 (plurality opinion) 

(quoting 33 U.S.C. § 1362(12)(A)). But, as we discuss in Kentucky Waterways, that quote has 

been taken out of context, and the courts and litigants that rely on it in support of the 

hydrological connection theory 
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 12

have erred for a number of reasons. Not the least of which is that Rapanos is not 

binding here: it is a four-justice plurality opinion answering an entirely different 

legal question. See id. at 739 (concluding that certain wetlands and intermittent 

streams did not themselves fall within the CWA’s definition of navigable waters). 

In any event, when Justice Scalia pointed out the absence of the word “directly” 

from § 1362(12)(A), he did so to explain that pollutants which travel through 

multiple point sources before discharging into navigable waters are still covered 

by the CWA. Id. at 743 (“[T]he discharge into intermittent channels of any 

pollutant that naturally washes downstream likely violates [the CWA], even if the 

pollutants discharged from a point source do not emit ‘directly into’ covered 

waters, but pass ‘through conveyances’ in between. (emphasis omitted)). Justice 

Scalia’s reference to “conveyances”—the CWA’s definition of a point source—

reveals his true concern. He sought to make clear that intermediary point sources 

do not break the chain of CWA liability; the opinion says nothing of point-sourceto-nonpoint-source dumping like that at issue here. And the facts in Rapanos

confirm this to be true. The three wetlands that the Supreme Court defined out of 

the CWA in Rapanos were all linked to navigable waters by multiple different 

point sources (drains, ditches, creeks, and the like). Id. at 729-30. Thus, our 

holding today does not stand in conflict with the Rapanos plurality.

Ky. Waterways All., --- F.3d ---, No. 18-5115, at ---. We further concluded that the CWA’s other 

provisions and corresponding federal environmental laws strengthened this reading, which brings 

us to TVA’s next argument—that the district court’s hydrological connection holding directly 

conflicts with RCRA and the CCR Rule.

2. Statutory Context

Along with protecting the “Nation’s waters,” the CWA also protects the primary rights 

and responsibilities of the States to regulate pollution. 33 U.S.C. § 1251(a), (b). Congress 

specifically designed other environmental statutes to partner with the CWA:

RCRA is designed to work in tandem with other federal environmental protection 

laws, including the CWA. See 42 U.S.C. § 6905(b) (“The [EPA] shall integrate 

all provisions of [RCRA] for purposes of administration and enforcement and 

shall avoid duplication, to the maximum extent practicable, with the appropriate 

provisions of . . . [the CWA].”). For that reason, RCRA and the CWA should be 

read as complementary statutes, each addressed at regulating different potential 

environmental hazards. Cf. Erlenbaugh v. United States, 409 U.S. 239, 243-44 

(1972) (statutes that “pertain to the same subject” may be treated “as if they were 

one law,” because “whenever Congress passes a new statute, it acts aware of all 

previous statutes on the same subject”). 
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 13

Ky. Waterways All., --- F.3d ---, No. 18-5115, at ---. Moreover, allowing the CWA to cover 

pollution of this sort would disrupt the existing regulatory framework. Because “RCRA 

explicitly exempts from its coverage any pollution that is subject to CWA regulation,” id., 

42 U.S.C. §6903 (27), reading the CWA in this way would remove coal ash treatment and 

storage practices from RCRA’s coverage. “But coal ash is solid waste, and RCRA is specifically 

designed to cover solid waste.” Id. Thus, the proposed CWA reading would be “problematic.” 

Id.

Even “more problematic” 

is the fact that, pursuant to RCRA, the EPA has issued a formal rule that 

specifically covers coal ash storage and treatment. See 80 Fed. Reg. 21,302 (Apr. 

17, 2015) (the “CCR Rule”). The CCR Rule was designed to regulate, among 

other things, coal ash ponds. Id. at 21,303. Yet because the EPA issued the CCR 

Rule under RCRA, reading the CWA to cover coal ash ponds would gut the rule. 

Adopting Plaintiffs’ reading of the CWA would mean that any coal ash pond with 

a hydrological connection to a navigable water would require an NPDES permit, 

thus removing it from RCRA’s coverage and with it, the CCR Rule. Almost all 

coal ash ponds sit near navigable waterways because of the large amounts of 

water needed to operate coal-fired power plants. As such, adopting Plaintiffs’ 

interpretation of the CWA would leave the CCR Rule virtually useless. We 

decline to interpret the CWA in a way that would effectively nullify the CCR 

Rule and large portions of RCRA. 

Id., --- F.3d ---, No. 18-5115, at --- (citation omitted).

The CCR Rule “specifically addresses the ‘disposal of coal [ash] as solid waste under 

[RCRA].” Id. at ---, (quoting 80 Fed. Reg. at 21,302). The CCR Rule therefore “requires any 

existing unlined CCR surface impoundment that is contaminating groundwater above a regulated 

constituent’s groundwater protection standard to stop receiving CCR and either retrofit or close.” 

Id. (quoting 80 Fed. Reg. at 21,302). The rule also establishes minimum criteria for CCR surface 

impoundments, requires groundwater monitoring, and further demands corrective action where 

groundwater contamination exceeds accepted levels. Id. (citing 80 Fed. Reg. at 21,396-408). 

In other words, the CCR Rule, not the CWA, is the framework envisioned by Congress (by 

delegating rulemaking authority to the EPA through RCRA) to address the problem of 

groundwater contamination caused by coal ash impoundments.
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 14

For these reasons, we hold that the district court erred in adopting Plaintiffs’ theory that 

the CWA prohibits discharges of pollutants through groundwater that is hydrologically 

connected to navigable waters.

B. Removed-Substances and Sanitary-Sewer Overflow Provisions

Because the district court also held that TVA violated the CWA based on two other 

provisions of the Permit, our inquiry is not yet at an end. TVA challenges the district court’s 

holdings that TVA violated the Permit’s removed-substances and sanitary-sewer overflow 

provisions based on Plaintiffs’ demonstration of unauthorized discharges of coal ash from the 

Complex. NPDES permits are interpreted like contracts. Piney Run Pres. Ass’n v. Cty. Comm’rs 

of Carroll Cty., 268 F.3d 255, 269 (4th Cir. 2001).

1. Removed-Substances Provision

The removed-substances provision is found in Part I of the Permit, which sets forth 

“Effluent Limitations and Monitoring Requirements.” It provides that “TVA Gallatin Fossil 

Plant is authorized to discharge” enumerated pollutants “through Outfall 001,” including “ash 

transport water” and “ash sluice water leakage.” These discharges are “limited and monitored by 

the permittee” according to specified “parameters,” limitations on quantities, rates, and 

concentrations of specified chemicals. Part I.A(c) by its terms, is an “[a]dditional monitoring 

requirement[] and condition[]applicable to Outfalls 001, 002, and 004.” It states that “[s]ludge 

or any other material removed by any treatment works must be disposed of in a manner, which 

prevents its entrance into or pollution of any surface or subsurface waters.” 

Noting that some of the ash waste produced as a result of the sluicing process escapes to 

the Cumberland River, the district court held simply that “Plaintiffs’ demonstration of 

unauthorized discharges from the Ash Pond Complex” established “a violation of the facial 

terms of Part I.A(c).” But karst-related leaks are not discharges from “Outfalls 001, 002, and 

004.” Thus, this provision simply does not apply, and was therefore not violated by the conduct 

at issue in this case.
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 15

2. Sanitary-Sewer Overflow Provision

The sanitary-sewer overflow provision, found in Part II of the Permit, prohibits “the 

discharge to land or water of wastes from any portion of the collection, transmission, or 

treatment system other than through permitted outfalls.” The district court held that, “[a]s with 

[the removed-substances provision], this allegation is resolved by Plaintiffs’ demonstration that 

TVA improperly discharged coal ash waste through leaks to the . . . Complex.”

But this provision also cannot be reasonably read to cover karst-related leaks. While the 

Permit does not define sewage, it treats it as a distinct type of “Pollutant” distinct from 

“industrial wastes, or other wastes.” See 33 U.S.C. §1362(6) (defining “pollutant” as including 

“sewage” as well as “chemical wastes”). This distinction is consistent with the EPA definition of 

sanitary-sewer overflow as involving “[a]n untreated or partially treated sewage release from a 

sanitary sewer system.” The EPA’s NPDES Permit Writers’ Manual states that “occasional, 

unintentional spills of raw sewage from municipal sanitary sewers occur in almost every system. 

Such types of releases are called sanitary sewer overflows (SSOs).” The district court, by 

treating coal ash wastewater as a sanitary-sewer overflow, ignored the plain meaning of sewage. 

Further, the Permit treats these types of pollutants differently. Industrial wastes like “discharge 

ash transport water” and “ash sluice water leakage” are authorized with limitations while 

“Sanitary Sewer Overflows are prohibited.” Thus, karst-related leakage cannot be a violation of 

this provision.

Because the plain language of these two provisions does not apply to karst-related 

discharges from the Complex, there is no violation of the Permit. Neither provision supports the 

district court’s injunction. Given this conclusion, we need not address TVA’s arguments that 

that the collateral attack and permit shield doctrines shield it from liability.

C. Injunctive Relief

Without CWA liability, the district court’s injunction has no foundation. Its imposition 

was therefore an abuse of discretion. 
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 16

IV. CONCLUSION

As the district court rightly concluded, “an unlined [coal] ash waste pond in karst terrain 

immediately adjacent to a river” that leaks pollutants into the groundwater is a major 

environmental problem that the Permit does not adequately address. But the CWA is not the 

proper legal tool of correction. Fortunately, other environmental laws have been enacted to 

remedy these concerns. For these reasons, as well as those articulated in Kentucky Waterways, 

we REVERSE the judgment of the district court imposing CWA liability on TVA.
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 17

_________________

DISSENT

_________________

CLAY, Circuit Judge, dissenting. Can a polluter escape liability under the Clean Water 

Act (“CWA”), 33 U.S.C. §§ 1251–1387, by moving its drainage pipes a few feet from the 

riverbank? The Fourth and Ninth Circuits have said no. In two cases today,1the majority says 

yes. Because the majority’s conclusion is contrary to the plain text and history of the CWA, and 

because I disagree with the majority’s analysis of the permit’s Sanitary Sewer Overflow 

provision, I respectfully dissent from the majority’s position as to these issues.

I. Scope of the Clean Water Act

Plaintiffs have invoked the CWA’s citizen-suit provision, which provides that “any 

citizen may commence a civil action . . . against any person . . . who is alleged to be in violation 

of . . . an effluent standard or limitation under this chapter[.]” 33 U.S.C. § 1365(a). “For 

purposes of this section, the term ‘effluent standard or limitation under this chapter’ means,” 

among other possibilities, “an unlawful act under subsection (a) of section 1311 of this title.” 

§ 1365(f). In turn, § 1311(a) prohibits “the discharge of any pollutant by any person[.]”

The broad sweep of a defendant’s potential CWA liability is limited in two ways. First, 

Congress included a list of exceptions in § 1311(a) itself: the discharge of a pollutant is unlawful 

“[e]xcept in compliance with this section and sections 1312, 1316, 1317, 1328, 1342, and 1344 

of this title.” Second, Congress gave the phrase “discharge of a pollutant” a very specific 

definition: it means “any addition of any pollutant to navigable waters from any point source.” 

33 U.S.C. § 1362(12)(A). Taken together, Congress thus authorized citizen suits to prevent the 

“addition of any pollutant to navigable waters from any point source,” see § 1362(12)(A), but if a 

listed statutory exception applies, see § 1311(a).

The majority argues that this standard cannot be satisfied when, as here, pollution travels 

briefly through groundwater before reaching a navigable water. Plaintiffs counter that such an 

 

1The other case is Case No. 18-5115, Kentucky Waterways Alliance, et al. v. Kentucky Utilities Co.
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 18

exception has no statutory basis and would allow polluters to shirk their CWA obligations by 

placing their underground drainage pipes a few feet away from the shoreline. This case could 

have profound implications for those in this Circuit who would pollute our Nation’s waters. And 

the issue is novel. This Court has never before considered whether the CWA applies in this 

context.

However, the Fourth and Ninth Circuits have. Both courts determined that a short 

journey through groundwater does not defeat CWA liability. See Upstate Forever v. Kinder 

Morgan Energy Partners, L.P., 887 F.3d 637, 649–51 (4th Cir. 2018); Hawai’i Wildlife Fund v. 

Cty. of Maui, 886 F.3d 737, 745–49 (9th Cir. 2018). The Second Circuit reached a similar 

conclusion where the pollutants traveled briefly through fields (which are not necessarily point 

sources) and through the air. See Concerned Area Residents for Env’t v. Southview Farm, 

34 F.3d 114, 118–19 (2d Cir. 1994) (fields); Peconic Baykeeper, Inc. v. Suffolk Cty., 600 F.3d 

180, 188–89 (2d Cir. 2010) (air). Until today, no Circuit had come out the other way. The 

reason is simple: the CWA does not require a plaintiff to show that a defendant discharged a 

pollutant from a point source directly into navigable waters; a plaintiff must simply show that the 

defendant “add[ed] . . . any pollutant to navigable waters from any point source.” See

§§ 1362(12)(A) (emphases added), 1365(a), 1311(a); Upstate Forever, 887 F.3d at 650; Hawai’i 

Wildlife Fund, 886 F.3d at 749.

The Supreme Court addressed this precise issue in Rapanos v. United States, 547 U.S. 

715 (2006). There, Justice Scalia’s plurality opinion was explicit:

The Act does not forbid the “addition of any pollutant directly to navigable waters 

from any point source,” but rather the “addition of any pollutant to navigable 

waters.” [33 U.S.C.] § 1362(12)(A) (emphasis added); § 1311(a). Thus, from the 

time of the CWA’s enactment, lower courts have held that the discharge into 

intermittent channels of any pollutant that naturally washes downstream likely 

violates § 1311(a), even if the pollutants discharged from a point source do not 

emit “directly into” covered waters, but pass “through conveyances” in between. 

United States v. Velsicol Chemical Corp., 438 F. Supp. 945, 946–947 (W.D.Tenn. 

1976) (a municipal sewer system separated the “point source” and covered 

navigable waters). See also Sierra Club v. El Paso Gold Mines, Inc., 421 F.3d 

1133, 1137, 1141 (C.A.10 2005) (2.5 miles of tunnel separated the “point source” 

and “navigable waters”).
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 19

Id. at 743 (plurality opinion) (emphasis in original). True, Justice Scalia’s plurality opinion is 

not binding. But no Justice challenged this aspect of the opinion, and for good reason: the 

statutory text unambiguously supports it.

Further, applying the CWA to point-source pollution traveling briefly through 

groundwater before reaching a navigable water promotes the CWA’s primary purpose, which is 

to “restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters.” 

33 U.S.C. § 1251(a). By contrast, the majority’s approach defeats the CWA’s purpose by 

opening a gaping regulatory loophole: polluters can avoid CWA liability by discharging their 

pollutants into groundwater, even if that groundwater flows immediately into a nearby navigable 

water. This exception has no textual or logical foundation. As one district court observed,

it would hardly make sense for the CWA to encompass a polluter who discharges 

pollutants via a pipe running from the factory directly to the riverbank, but not a 

polluter who dumps the same pollutants into a man-made settling basin some 

distance short of the river and then allows the pollutants to seep into the river via 

the groundwater.

See N. Cal. River Watch v. Mercer Fraser Co., No. C-04-4620 SC, 2005 WL 2122052, at *2 

(N.D. Cal. Sept. 1, 2005). In addition, this exception has no apparent limits. Based on the 

majority’s logic, polluters are free to add pollutants to navigable waters so long as the pollutants 

travel through any kind of intermediate medium—for example through groundwater, across 

fields, or through the air. This would seem to give polluters free rein to discharge pollutants 

from a sprinkler system suspended above Lake Michigan. After all, pollutants launched from 

such a sprinkler system would travel “in all directions, guided only by the general pull of 

gravity.” Kentucky Waterways Alliance, 18-5115 at 11. According to the majority, this would 

defeat CWA liability.2

 

2The majority declines to reverse the district court’s other finding that a coal ash pond is a point source 

under the CWA, but suggests disagreement in a footnote. The CWA defines “point source” as “any discernible, 

confined and discrete conveyance,” including “any pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit, well, discrete fissure, 

container, rolling stock, concentrated animal feeding operation, or vessel or other floating craft, from which

pollutants are or may be discharged.” 33 U.S.C. § 1362(14). The majority cites a recent Fourth Circuit case, Sierra 

Club v. Va. Elec. & Power Co., No. 17-1952, --- F.3d ---, 2018 WL 4343513 (4th Cir. Sept. 12, 2018), which held 

that a coal ash pond is not a point source because it was a “static recipient[] of the precipitation and groundwater that 

flowed through [it].” 2018 WL 4343513 at *6. Looking at the text of the CWA, however, shows that, inter alia, 

“ditch[es], well[s], container[s],” and “vessel[s]” are included in the definition. 33 U.S.C. § 1362(14). The canon of 
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 20

I have a very different view. In cases where, as here, a plaintiff alleges that a defendant 

is polluting navigable waters through a complex pathway, the court should require the plaintiff to 

prove the existence of pollutants in the navigable waters and to persuade the factfinder that the 

defendant’s point source is to blame—that the defendant is unlawfully “add[ing] . . . any 

pollutant to navigable waters from any point source.” 33 U.S.C. § 1362(12)(A). The more 

complex the pathway, the more difficult the proof. Where these cases are plausibly pleaded, they 

should be decided on the facts.

Instead, the majority holds that a plaintiff may never—as a matter of law—prove that a 

defendant has unlawfully added pollutants to navigable waterways via groundwater. For its 

textual argument, the majority refers us to the term “effluent limitations.” This term, the 

majority says, is defined as “restrictions on the amount of pollutants that may be ‘discharged 

from point sources into navigable waters.’” Maj. Op. at 11 (quoting with emphasis 3 U.S.C. 

§ 1362(11)). Seizing on the word “into”—which denotes “entry, introduction, insertion”—the 

majority concludes that the effluent-limitation definition implicitly creates an element of 

“directness.” In other words, the majority reasons, “for a point source to discharge into 

 

ejusdem generis states that “the general term must take its meaning from the specific terms with which it appears.” 

Retail Ventures, Inc. v. Nat’l Union Fire Ins. Co. of Pittsburgh, 691 F.3d 821, 833 (6th Cir. 2012). The common 

denominator between wells, containers, ditches, and vessels is that each is a man-made, defined area where liquid 

collects. The canon of ejusdem generis thus suggests that man-made coal ash ponds are included in this definition. 

The Fourth Circuit instead cites a dictionary definition of “conveyance” as “a facility—for the movement of 

something from one place to another” without explaining how items like wells, containers, and vessels fit this 

definition. Va. Elec. & Power Co., 2018 WL 4343513, at *5 (quoting Webster’s Third New International 

Dictionary 499 (1961)). The Fourth Circuit suggests that a container can be a point source only if it is in the act of 

conveying something, 2018 WL 4343513, at *7, ignoring that the statutory definition includes “any ... container ... 

from which pollutants are or may be discharged.” 33 U.S.C. § 1362(14) (emphasis added).

The Fourth Circuit’s approach is further misguided in that it conflicts with the broad interpretation that 

federal courts have traditionally given to the phrase “point source.” See, e.g., Simsbury-Avon Pres. Club, Inc. v. 

Metacon Gun Club, Inc., 575 F.3d 199, 219 (2d Cir. 2009) (quoting Dague v. City of Burlington, 935 F.2d 1343, 

1354–55 (2d Cir. 1991), rev’d on other grounds, 505 U.S. 557 (1992)) (“[T]he definition of a point source is to be 

broadly interpreted.”); Cmty. Ass’n for Restoration of the Env’t v. Henry Bosma Dairy, 305 F.3d 943, 955 (9th Cir. 

2002) (quoting Dague, 935 F.2d at 1354–55); Cmty. Ass’n for Restoration of Env’t (CARE) v. Sid Koopman Dairy, 

54 F. Supp. 2d 976, 980 (E.D. Wash. 1999) (citing Dague, 935 F.2d at 1354–55); Yadkin Riverkeeper, Inc. v. Duke 

Energy Carolinas, LLC, 141 F. Supp. 3d 428, 444 (M.D. N.C. 2015) (quoting Dague, 935 F.2d at 1354–55); see

United States v. Earth Scis., Inc., 599 F.2d 368, 373 (10th Cir. 1979) (“[T]he concept of a point source was designed 

to further [the CWA’s regulatory] scheme by embracing the broadest possible definition of any identifiable 

conveyance from which pollutants might enter the waters of the United States.”). By embracing a restrictive 

definition of what constitutes a point source, the Fourth Circuit jettisons these long-standing principles.
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 21

navigable waters, it must dump directly into those navigable waters[.]” Id. (emphasis in 

original).

The majority is way off the rails. First of all, “Congress ‘does not alter the fundamental 

details of a regulatory scheme in vague terms or ancillary provisions—it does not, one might say, 

hide elephants in mouseholes.’” Epic Sys. Corp. v. Lewis, 138 S. Ct. 1612, 1626–27 (2018) 

(quoting Whitman v. Am. Trucking Assns., Inc., 531 U.S. 457, 468 (2001)). The majority should 

heed this commonsense advice. Congress did not hide a massive regulatory loophole in its use 

of the word “into.”

But more importantly, the majority’s quoted definition of “effluent limitation” from 

§ 1362(11)—the supposed origin of the loophole—is not relevant to this case. The citizen-suit 

provision uses the term “effluent standard or limitation”—not the term “effluent limitation.” See

33 U.S.C. § 1365(f). As the majority itself argues, minor distinctions in statutory language 

sometimes matter. This one does. The phrase “effluent standard or limitation” is a term of art 

and is wholly distinct from the term “effluent limitation.” This conclusion is supported not by 

tea leaves or a carefully selected dictionary, but rather by the CWA itself. The citizen-suit 

provision of the CWA provides that “effluent standard or limitation” means, among other things, 

“an unlawful act under subsection (a) of section 1311 of this title.” 33 U.S.C. § 1365(a). 

Turning to § 1311(a), we find that, absent certain exceptions, “the discharge of any pollutant by 

any person shall be unlawful,” § 1311(a), and the “discharge of a pollutant” means “any addition 

of any pollutant to navigable waters from any point source,” § 1362(12)(A) (emphasis added). 

Thus, even assuming the majority correctly parses the definition of “into”—a dubious 

proposition at best—the word “into” is not contained in any of the statutory provisions at issue. 

Rather, we find the word “to,” which does not even arguably suggest a requirement of directness; 

the word “to” merely “indicate[s] movement or an action or condition suggestive of movement 

toward a place, person, or thing reached.” To, Merriam-Webster Dictionary, 

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/to.

It is therefore entirely unclear why the majority relies on the definition of “effluent 

limitation.” That definition is simply irrelevant to this lawsuit. As a result, the majority’s 

criticisms of the approach taken by the Fourth and Ninth Circuits miss the mark. Indeed, the 
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 22

Fourth Circuit analyzed the correct statutory text when it rejected the argument that the citizensuit provision requires directness:

[t]he plain language of the CWA requires only that a discharge come “from” a 

“point source.” See 33 U.S.C. § 1362(12)(A). Just as the CWA’s definition of a 

discharge of a pollutant does not require a discharge directly to navigable waters, 

Rapanos, 547 U.S. at 743, 126 S.Ct. 2208, neither does the Act require a

discharge directly from a point source, see 33 U.S.C. § 1362(12)(A). The word 

“from” indicates “a starting point: as (1) a point or place where an actual physical 

movement . . . has its beginning.” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 

913 (Philip Babcock Gove et al. eds., 2002) (emphasis added); see also The 

American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language 729 (3d ed. 1992) (noting 

“from” indicates a “starting point” or “cause”). Under this plain meaning, a point 

source is the starting point or cause of a discharge under the CWA, but that 

starting point need not also convey the discharge directly to navigable waters.

Upstate Forever, 887 F.3d at 650 (footnote omitted). In short, if the majority would like to add a 

“directness” requirement to § 1311, it must fight the statutory text to get there.

In addition, the majority fails to meaningfully distinguish Justice Scalia’s concurrence in 

Rapanos, which made clear that the CWA applies to indirect pollution. It is true that Rapanos 

dealt with different facts. But it is irrelevant that the pollution in Rapanos traveled through point 

sources before reaching a navigable water, whereas the pollution in this case traveled through 

groundwater, which, according to the majority, is not a point source. In both cases, the legal 

issue is the same: whether the CWA applies to pollution that travels from a point source to 

navigable waters through a complex pathway. See Rapanos, 547 U.S. at 745 (asking whether 

“the contaminant-laden waters ultimately reach covered waters”). Indeed, Justice Scalia 

favorably cited the Second Circuit’s discussion in Concerned Area Residents for the 

Environment. Rapanos, 547 U.S. at 744. In that case, pollutants traveled across fields—which 

“were not necessarily point sources themselves”—before reaching navigable waters. Hawai’i 

Wildlife Fund, 886 F.3d at 748. Given the Supreme Court plurality’s endorsement of the Second 

Circuit’s approach, the majority’s attempt to distinguish Rapanos collapses.

Next, the majority warns that imposing liability would upset the cooperative federalism 

embodied by the CWA. On this view, the states alone are responsible for regulating pollution of 

groundwater, even if that pollution later travels to a navigable water. Wrong again. To be sure, 
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 23

the CWA recognizes the “primary responsibilities and rights of States” to regulate groundwater 

pollution. 33 U.S.C. § 1251(b). But imposing liability in this case would not marginalize the 

states. To the contrary, the district court made clear that it was not regulating the pollution of 

groundwater itself. See Tennessee Clean Water Network, 273 F. Supp. 3d at 826 (“The Court 

agrees with those courts that view the issue not as whether the CWA regulates the discharge of 

pollutants into groundwater itself but rather whether the CWA regulates the discharge of 

pollutants to navigable waters via groundwater.” (quotation marks, alteration, and citation 

omitted)). Instead, the district court was addressing pollution of a navigable water—specifically, 

the Cumberland River—via groundwater. This distinction was clear to the Fourth and Ninth 

Circuits. See Upstate Forever, 887 F.3d at 652 (“We do not hold that the CWA covers 

discharges to ground water itself. Instead, we hold only that an alleged discharge of pollutants, 

reaching navigable waters . . . by means of ground water with a direct hydrological connection to 

such navigable waters, falls within the scope of the CWA.”); Hawai’i Wildlife Fund, 886 F.3d at 

749 (“[T]he County’s concessions conclusively establish that pollutants discharged from all four 

wells emerged at discrete points in the Pacific Ocean . . . . We leave for another day the task of 

determining when, if ever, the connection between a point source and a navigable water is too 

tenuous to support liability under the CWA.”). Accordingly, imposing liability in this case fits 

perfectly with the CWA’s stated purpose: to “restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and 

biological integrity of the Nation’s waters.” 33 U.S.C. § 1251(a). 

Finally, the majority offers a narrow reading of the CWA because, in its view, a more 

inclusive reading would render “virtually useless” the Coal Combustion Residuals (“CCR”) Rule 

under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (“RCRA”). Maj. Op. at 13. The majority 

notes that if a polluter’s conduct is regulated through a CWA permit, then RCRA does not also 

apply. The majority therefore suggests that a straightforward reading of the CWA is 

incompatible with RCRA. The majority would gut the former statute to save the latter.

But the EPA has already dismissed the majority’s concern. Indeed, the EPA issued 

federal regulations on this issue many decades ago. The EPA’s interpretation is that the 

industrial discharge of waste such as CCR is subject to regulation under both RCRA and the 

CWA: RCRA regulates the way polluters store CCR, and the CWA kicks in the moment CCR 
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 24

enters a navigable waterway. See 40 C.F.R. § 261.4(a)(2). The EPA first articulated this 

approach in a set of regulations from 1980, which provide that “[i]ndustrial wastewater 

discharges that are point source discharges subject to regulation under section 402 of the Clean 

Water Act” “are not solid wastes for the purpose of” the RCRA exclusion. 40 C.F.R. 

§ 261.4(a)(2). This exclusion, the regulation explains, “applies only to the actual point source 

discharge. It does not exclude industrial wastewaters while they are being collected, stored or 

treated before discharge, nor does it exclude sludges that are generated by industrial wastewater 

treatment.” § 261.4(a)(2) (comment) (emphasis added). Thus, under the EPA’s reading, a 

polluter can be liable under RCRA for improperly storing CCR—even if the CCR never enters a 

navigable waterway. See id. Conversely, a polluter can be liable under the CWA for adding 

CCR to a navigable waterway—even if the polluter’s storage methods comport with RCRA. See 

id. And of course, a polluter can be liable under both statutes if the polluter both improperly 

stores CCR and discharges it to a navigable waterway. See id.

The EPA settled any doubts on this matter by publishing a detailed description of its 

rationale in the Federal Register. See 45 Fed. Reg. 33098. The EPA explained that 40 C.F.R. 

§ 261.4(a)(2) reflects the EPA’s interpretation that regulation of a polluter’s discharge of 

industrial waste to a navigable waterway pursuant to the CWA does not trigger the 42 U.S.C. 

§ 6903(27) exclusion and therefore does not exempt that polluter’s storage of CCR from 

regulation under RCRA:

The obvious purpose of the industrial point source discharge exclusion in Section 

1004(27) was to avoid duplicative regulation of point source discharges under 

RCRA and the Clean Water Act. Without such a provision, the discharge of 

wastewater into navigable waters would be “disposal” of solid waste, and 

potentially subject to regulation under both the Clean Water Act and Subtitle C 

[of RCRA]. These considerations do not apply to industrial wastewaters prior to 

discharge since most of the environmental hazards posed by wastewaters in 

treatment and holding facilities—primarily groundwater contamination—cannot 

be controlled under the Clean Water Act or other EPA statutes.

Had Congress intended to exempt industrial wastewaters in storage and treatment 

facilities from all RCRA requirements, it seems unlikely that the House Report on 

RCRA would have cited, as justification for the development of a national 

hazardous waste management program, numerous damage incidents which appear 

to have involved leakage or overflow from industrial wastewater impoundments. 

See, e.g., H.R. Rep. at 21. Nor would Congress have used the term “discharge” in 
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 25

Section 1004(27). This is a term of art under the Clean Water Act (Section 

504(12)) and refers only to the “addition of any pollutant to navigable waters”, 

not to industrial wastewaters prior to and during treatment.

Since the comment period closed on EPA’s regulations, both Houses of Congress 

have passed amendments to RCRA which are designed to provide EPA with more 

flexibility under Subtitle C in setting standards for and issuing permits to existing 

facilities which treat or store hazardous wastewater. See Section 3(a)(2) of H.R. 

3994 and Section 7 of S.1156. See also S. Rep. No. 96-173, 96th Cong., 1st Sess. 

3 (1979); Cong. Rec. S6819, June 4, 1979 (daily ed.); Cong. Rec. H1094–1096, 

February 20, 1980 (daily ed.). These proposed amendments and the 

accompanying legislative history should lay to rest any question of whether 

Congress intended industrial wastewaters in holding or treatment facilities to be 

regulated as “solid waste” under RCRA.

45 Fed. Reg. 33098. Congress ratified the EPA’s interpretation when it enacted amendments to 

RCRA, which the EPA said would “lay to rest” any concerns about whether industrial wastes 

like CCR are subject to regulation under both RCRA (in terms of their storage and treatment) 

and the CWA (in terms of their discharge to navigable waters). Id.; see Public Law 96-482. 

From this history, and from the text of the statutes, we can surmise that Congress intended to 

delegate to the EPA the power “to speak with the force of law” on this aspect of the interplay 

between RCRA and the CWA. See United States v. Mead Corp., 533 U.S. 218, 229 (2001). 

Exercising this authority, the EPA reached an interpretation that is different from—and 

incompatible with—that of the majority.

Contravening bedrock principles of administrative law, the majority bulldozes the EPA’s 

interpretation of its own statutory authority without even discussing the possibility of deference. 

But “[w]e have long recognized that considerable weight should be accorded to an executive 

department’s construction of a statutory scheme it is entrusted to administer, and the principle of 

deference to administrative interpretations.” Chevron, U.S.A., Inc. v. Nat. Res. Def. Council, 

Inc., 467 U.S. 837, 844 (1984). 

In Chevron, this Court held that ambiguities in statutes within an agency’s 

jurisdiction to administer are delegations of authority to the agency to fill the 

statutory gap in reasonable fashion. Filling these gaps, the Court explained, 

involves difficult policy choices that agencies are better equipped to make than 

courts. 467 U.S., at 865–866, 104 S.Ct. 2778. If a statute is ambiguous, and if the 

implementing agency’s construction is reasonable, Chevron requires a federal 
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 26

court to accept the agency’s construction of the statute, even if the agency’s 

reading differs from what the court believes is the best statutory interpretation. 

Nat’l Cable & Telecomms. Ass’n v. Brand X Internet Servs., 545 U.S. 967, 980 (2005). The EPA 

says that imposing CWA liability for the discharge of CCR to navigable waterways does not 

eliminate the possibility of RCRA liability for the storage and treatment of CCR. The majority 

suggests the exact opposite. Unfortunately for the majority, but fortunately for those who enjoy 

clean water, the majority lacks the authority to override longstanding EPA regulations on a 

whim. See id.

For all these reasons, I believe the CWA clearly applies to the pollution in this case. 

Accordingly, I would join our sister circuits in holding that the CWA prohibits all pollution that 

reaches navigable waters “by means of ground water with a direct hydrological connection to 

such navigable waters[.]” Upstate Forever, 887 F.3d at 652; see Hawai’i Wildlife Fund, 

886 F.3d at 745–49. Under this standard, the unpermitted leaks from NRS and Complex are 

clearly unlawful.

II. The Permit’s Sanitary Sewer Overflow Provision

The permit prohibits “Sanitary Sewer Overflows,” which it defines as “the discharge to 

land or water of wastes from any portion of the collection, transmission, or treatment system 

other than through permitted outfalls.” (R. 1-2, permit, PageID# 79.) The district court found, 

and TVA no longer disputes, that the Complex discharges coal ash waste to groundwater through 

its unlined, leaking sides and bottoms. These discharges are not authorized by the permit. 

Therefore, Plaintiffs have proven a permit violation.

The majority avoids this result by overcomplicating the issue. Ignoring the plain text of 

the permit, the majority instead champions the EPA’s standard definition of “Sanitary Sewer 

Overflow,” which is narrow and arguably saves TVA from liability. This reasoning is 

perplexing. The EPA’s definition should play no role in the legal analysis here because the 

permit itself defines “Sanitary Sewer Overflow.” Indeed, TVA’s permit expert conceded in the 

district court that the permit’s definition is broader than the EPA’s definition. Accordingly, this 

Court should apply the plain text of the permit’s definition, as it would apply the plain text of 
No. 17-6155 Tenn. Clean Water Network, et al. v. TVA Page 27

any contract. This Court has no plausible authority or reason to substitute a definition provided 

in the permit with one drafted in a different context by a nonparty who has no relation to this 

case.

Further, the EPA’s standard definition makes little sense in this context. As the majority 

recognizes, that definition applies only to sewage from sanitary sewer systems. But a coal ash 

pond is not a “sanitary sewer system.” It does not contain “sewage.” Consequently, interpreting 

the Sanitary Sewer Overflow provision to regulate sewage alone would render the provision 

meaningless. This Court should avoid such an interpretation, especially when the permit itself 

provides a definition that does not trigger any such concerns. See Gallo v. Moen Inc., 813 F.3d 

265, 273 (6th Cir. 2016) (noting the general rule that “courts should interpret contracts to avoid 

superfluous words”). 

For these reasons, I would hold that the district court correctly ruled that the Complex’s 

karst-related leaks violate the sanitary-sewer provision.

Conclusion

As set forth above, I believe that the CWA applies to TVA’s indirect pollution of 

navigable waters and that TVA violated the permit’s Sanitary Sewer Overflow provision. 

Because the majority disagrees as to both issues, I respectfully dissent.