Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. Costle

568 F.2d 1369 (1977)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendment's stated goal is to eliminate the discharge of pollutants into the Nation's waters by 1985. This goal is to be achieved through the enforcement of the strict timetables and technology-based effluent limitations established by the Act. The FWPCA sets up a permit program, the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), as the primary means of enforcing the Act's effluent limitations. Section 402 provides that under certain circumstances the EPA 'may . . . issue a permit for the discharge of any pollutant' notwithstanding the general proscription of pollutant discharges found in § 301 of the Act. The 1973 regulations exempted discharges from a number of classes of point sources from the permit requirements of § 402. The exemptions included silvicultural point sources; all confined animal feeding operations below a certain size; all irrigation return flows from areas of less than 3,000 contiguous acres or 3,000 noncontiguous acres that use the same drainage system; all nonfeedlot, nonirrigation agricultural point sources; and separate storm sewers containing only storm runoff uncontaminated by any industrial or commercial activity. P sought a declaratory judgment that the regulations are unlawful under the FWPCA. The Court granted P's motion in that the FWPCA does not authorize the Administrator to exclude any class of point sources from the permit program. D appealed.