Opinion ID: 788377
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Injury at all?

Text: 51 Finally, the above objections are premised on the assumption that the permit violations constitute a concrete and particularized injury-in-fact to American Canoe. Ailor v. City of Maynardville, Tenn., 368 F.3d 587, 596 (6th Cir.2004). I question whether the conduct in question actually constitutes an injury to American Canoe at all. According to the majority, American Canoe claims that they will not be able to: research the compliance status of Kentucky dischargers ... and to report the results of that research to its members; to propose legislation...; and to bring litigation to prevent violation of the discharge limitations in the permit and thereby protect the waters affected by the facility's discharge. In effect, American Canoe argues, and the majority holds, that the informational injury they suffer stems from the defendants' failure to comply with its permit. However, the amended complaint identifies 405 instances in which defendants exceeded the discharge limitations of its permit, 93 monitoring violations, and only 12 reporting violations. As a result, it seems reasonably clear that American Canoe could sufficiently research defendants' compliance status to report on discharge violations to its members. Additionally, although there were 12 reporting violations, the defendants likely had more than enough information to make judgments on future legislation, and, if the organization or any of its members were directly injured by the pollution in some concrete fashion (similar to the direct injury that Sierra Club can and did claim), the organization could easily use the 405 violations to provide the basis for a lawsuit.