Stoel Rives.

AuthorGallion, Mari
PositionINSIDE ALASKA BUSINESS - Rules for environmental management - Brief article

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that would have required Clean Water Act permits for stormwater running off logging roads for Alaska, Hawaii and the West. The earlier ruling in Decker v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center had threatened to burden landowners and local governments with enormous compliance and permitting costs while opening the door for administrative challenges and litigation following every permit approval.

The longstanding regulatory practice of the EPA has been to treat runoff from logging roads via ditches and culverts as non-point source pollution to be addressed by state best management practices. The Ninth Circuit held that such discharges were "associated with...

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