Eastern Water Law & Policy Reporter

FEATURE ARTICLE

Defining ‘The Waters’ Congress Intended the Clean Water Act to Regulate: Does Justice Kennedy’s ‘Significant Nexus’ Notion Hold Water? by David M. Ivester, Esq., Briscoe Ivester 107

WATER NEWS AND DEVELOPMENTS

President Trump Signs Executive Order ‘America-First Offshore Energy Strategy’ Reversing Obama’s Ban on Oil and Gas Drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf113

News from the West114

PENALTIES AND SANCTIONS

Recent Investigations, Settlements, Penalties and Sanctions118

JUDICIAL DEVELOPMENTS

Federal:

Ninth Circuit Finds It Lacked Jurisdiction to Review EPA Draft Permit Objection Letter That Did Not Promulgate Clean Water Act Effluent Limitation120

Southern California Alliance of Publicly Owned Treatment Works v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ___F.3d___, Case No. 14-74047 (9th Cir. Apr. 12, 2017).

Second Circuit Addresses ‘Derivative Claims’ Injunction as Part of a Bankruptcy Settlement Agreement122

Tronox Inc. v. Kerr-McGee Corp. (In re Tronox Inc.), ___F.3d___, Case No. 16-343, (2nd Cir. Apr. 20, 2017).

D.C. Circuit Reject’s EPA’s Primary Justification for Its Final Rule—That It Would Be Impractical or Unlikely for the Agency to Pursue Animal Waste Air Emissions124

Waterkeeper Alliance, et al. v. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, ___F.3d___, Case No. 09-1017 (D.C. Cir. Apr. 11, 2017).

District Court Orders Corps of Engineers to Honor State Water Quality Interpretation126

State of Ohio v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, ___F.Suppp.3d___, Case No. 1:15-CV-679 (N.D. Ohio May 5, 2017).

District Court Rejects Groundwater as a Point Source for Clean Water Act Liability127

Upstate Forever and Savannah Riverkeeper v. Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L.P. and Plantation Pipe Line Company, Inc., ___F.Supp.3d___, Case No. 8:16-40030HMH (D. S.C. 2017).