A federal appeals court should rule that a Clean Water Act discharge permit shield applies to all companies with valid permits, protecting them from enforcement for discharges of pollutants not specifically limited in the permit, industry groups said in a friend-of-the-court brief filed Jan. 7 (S. Appalachian Mountain Stewards V. A&G Coal Co., 4th Cir., No. 13-2050, 1/07/2014). The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit should reverse a lower court's ruling that would effectively require permit holders to identify every pollutant possible in its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit application, a solution that is "unworkable," the industry brief said.
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