Opinion ID: 2798554
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Clean Water Act and the National Pollutant

Text: Discharge Elimination System The Clean Water Act (CWA) heralded the modern era of federal water pollution control, with the stated objective to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's waters and the goal of eliminating water pollution (see 33 USC § 1251 [a]). It provided for more robust federal enforcement of pollution controls and the development and implementation of waste treatment programs (see Andreen at 239-24). It also declared unlawful the discharge of any pollutant by any person, to navigable waters from a point source (see 33 USC § 1311 [a]) unless authorized by federal permit, in accordance with the newly established national pollutant discharge elimination system (NPDES) (see 33 USC § 1342 [a]).1 This federal permit scheme, central to the CWA and administered by the EPA, subjects permit holders to pollutant discharge limitations as well as mandatory monitoring and 1 The CWA defines point sources as any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, including but 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, from which pollutants are or may be discharged (33 USC § 1362 [14]; see also 40 CFR 122.2). - 4 - - 5 - No. 48 reporting requirements (see 33 USC § 1311 [b] [1] [A]; 33 USC § 1342 [b] [1] [A] [requiring SPDES permits to comply with § 1311]; see also Andreen at 261; Jeffrey M. Gaba, Generally Illegal: Npdes General Permits Under the Clean Water Act, 31 Harv Envtl L Rev 409, 410 [2007]). While the NPDES permit authoriz[es] some water pollution, [it] place[s] important restrictions on the quality and character of that licit pollution (Waterkeeper Alliance, Inc. v U.S. E.P.A., 399 F3d 486, 491 [2d Cir 2005]). The CWA imposes effluent limitations, which are restriction[s]... on [the] quantities, rates, and concentrations of chemical, physical, biological, and other constituents which are discharged from point sources into navigable waters (id., citing South Florida Water Mgt. Dist. v Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, 541 US 95, 100 [2004]). The CWA defines effluent limitations as any restriction established by a State or the Administrator on quantities, rates, and concentrations of chemical, physical, biological, and other constituents which are discharged from point sources into navigable waters, the waters of the contiguous zone, or the ocean, including schedules of compliance (33 USC § 1362 [11]). Certain effluent limitations are technology based, meaning they are established in accordance with various technological standards that the [CWA] statutorily provides and that . . . vary depending upon the type of pollutant involved, the type of discharge involved, and whether the point source in question is new or already existing (Waterkeeper, 399 - 5 - - 6 - No. 48 F3d at 491). The CWA also provides for more stringent water quality-based effluent limitations when necessary to ensure state water quality standards (see 33 USC § 1311 [b] [C]). The technology-based and water quality-based limitations are generally represented as numerical limits on specific pollutant discharges (see Waterkeeper, 399 F3d at 491). A permit is issued upon condition that such [pollutant] discharge will meet . . . all applicable requirements including the effluent limitations statutorily required by the CWA (id. at 498 [brackets omitted]). Thus, under the CWA's NPDES permit structure, a discharger's performance is now measured against strict technology-based effluent limitations specified levels of treatment to which it must conform, rather than against limitations derived from water quality standards to which it and other polluters must collectively conform (Environmental Protection Agency v California ex rel. State Water Resources Control Bd., 426 US 200, 204-05 [1976] [hereinafter EPA). As described by the United States Supreme Court [a]n NPDES permit serves to transform generally applicable effluent limitations and other standards including those based on water quality into the obligations (including a timetable for compliance) of the individual discharger, and the Amendments provide for direct administrative and judicial enforcement of permits . . . In short, the permit defines, and facilitates compliance with, and enforcement of a preponderance of a discharger's obligations under the [Clean Water Act] Amendments (id. at 205 [internal citations omitted]). - 6 - - 7 - No. 48 The CWA itself imposes only limited procedural obligations on the issuance of NPDES permits (Gaba at 417). The process for obtaining a permit is specifically set forth in EPA regulations (see 40 CFR 122.21, et seq.). As a general matter, an applicant must file an EPA permit application form (see 40 CFR 122.21 [a] [2]). The application must be submitted at least 180 days before the applicant intends to commence discharging (see 40 CFR 122.21 [c] [1]), and no permit will issue if an application is deemed incomplete by the EPA (see 40 CFR 122.21 [e] [1]). The CWA anticipates and requires certain opportunities for public participation. As prominently set forth in the CWA Declaration of Goals and Policy, [p]ublic participation in the development, revision, and enforcement of any regulation, standard, effluent limitation, plan, or program established by the [EPA] or any State . . . shall be provided for, encouraged, and assisted by the [EPA] and the States (33 USC § 1251 [e]). The EPA may issue a NPDES permit only after opportunity for public hearing (33 USC § 1342 [a] [1]), and a copy of each permit application and permit issued . . . shall be available to the public (33 USC § 1342 [j]). In addition, the EPA regulations provide for public participation in the issuance of NPDES permits, including requiring notice and opportunity for comment on the denial of permit applications or the issuance of draft permits (see 40 CFR 124.10 [a] [i], [ii]), and the opportunity for a public hearing at the request of interested - 7 - - 8 - No. 48 parties (see 40 CFR 124.11). The Administrator of the EPA shall hold a hearing where the Administrator finds, on the basis of requests, a significant degree of public interest in a draft permit(s) (40 CFR 124.12 [a] [1]), or at [the Administrator's] discretion, whenever, for instance, such a hearing might clarify one or more issues involved in the permit decision (40 CFR 124.12 [a] [2]). Maximization of public involvement as a federally recognized goal is illustrated not only by the CWA's public participation requirement, but also by its statutory provisions authorizing private civil suits (see 33 USC § 1365). Under the CWA, a person may commence a civil suit against individual polluters as well as federal and state government entities for failure to act in accordance with the law (see 33 USC §§ 1365 (A) (1),(A) (2). Private actors have actively litigated the proper enforcement of the CWA and compliance with NPDES permits (see e.g. Los Angeles County Flood Control Dist. v Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 133 S Ct 710 [2013] [environmental organizations brought action against California municipal entities, alleging that they were discharging urban stormwater runoff into navigable waters in violation of the CWA]; Decker v Northwest Envtl. Defense Ctr., 133 S Ct 1326 [2013] [environmental organization brought action against Oregon officials and timber companies, alleging that they violated the CWA by discharging stormwater from ditches alongside logging - 8 - - 9 - No. 48 roads in state forest without NPDES permits]).