Opinion ID: 445104
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Placer Mines as Point Sources of Pollution

Text: 43 The Miners argue that their activities are exempt from NPDES permit requirements because mining is a nonpoint source of pollution and the prohibition against discharge of pollutants, see Sec. 1311(a), applies only to point sources, Sec. 1362(12), defined as any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance ... from which pollutants are or may be discharged. Sec. 1362(14). Another section of the Act discusses nonpoint sources, which encompasses mining activities, including runoff and siltation from new, currently operating, and abandoned surface and underground mines. Sec. 1314(f)(2)(B). These specified activities are not subject to NPDES permit requirements; rather, the Act directs the Administrator only to develop guidelines for identifying and controlling such sources. Thus, the Miners argue that requiring permits for placer mining is beyond the EPA's statutory authority. 44 The Tenth Circuit rejected a similar challenge in United States v. Earth Sciences, Inc., 599 F.2d 368 (10th Cir.1978), a case involving overflow of a toxic leachate solution at a gold mining operation. The court reviewed the legislative history of the Act, and noted that Congress had rejected an amendment that would have regulated mining discharge from point sources on the ground that it duplicated the Act's general regulatory provisions. Id. at 372 (citing Staff of Senate Comm. on Public Works, 93d Cong., 1st Sess., A Legislative History of the Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, 530-535 (Comm. Print 1973)). The court observed that Congress had classified nonpoint source pollution as runoff caused primarily by rainfall around activities that employ or create pollutants. Such runoff could not be traced to any identifiable point of discharge. Earth Sciences, 599 F.2d at 373. The court concluded that point and nonpoint sources are not distinguished by the kind of pollution they create or by the activity causing the pollution, but rather by whether the pollution reaches the water through a confined, discrete conveyance. Thus, when mining activities release pollutants from a discernible conveyance, they are subject to NPDES regulation, as are all point sources. Id. Accord Sierra Club v. Abston Construction Co., 620 F.2d 41, 44 (5th Cir.1980) (coal strip mines). Here, discharge water is released from a sluice box, a confined channel within the statutory definition. We adopt the analysis of Earth Sciences and hold that the EPA did not exceed its authority in issuing these permits. 45