Judge: Water Transfer Rule Does Not Bar Clean Water Act Suit

Mealey's (July 19, 2019, 11:23 AM EDT) -- HONOLULU — A federal judge in Hawaii on July 9 awarded summary judgment to three groups accusing the director of the state’s Agribusiness Development Corp. (ADC) of violating the Clean Water Act (CWA) by discharging pollutants into the Pacific Ocean via a 40-mile system of unlined trenches, finding that the trenches are not a navigable waterway of the United States (WOTUS) and that the Water Transfer Rule (WTR) does not shield the ADC from obtaining a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit (Na Kia’I Kai, et al. v. James Nakatani, No. 18cv5, D. Hawaii, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 113929)....