With Immunity Intact, Suit Over Tribe’s Dam Project Fails, 9th Circuit Rules

Mealey's (June 25, 2021, 10:05 AM EDT) -- PORTLAND, Ore. — An Oregon Indian tribe had its victory in federal court reversed but then won on different grounds when the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on June 23 ordered dismissal of a citizen suit alleging that the tribe’s operation of a hydroelectric project violates the Clean Water Act (CWA) after finding that the tribe never waived its sovereign immunity or was stripped of immunity by the CWA....