Dam Suit Tests States’ CWA 401 Waivers As EPA Raises Bay Concerns

Environmentalists are testing the conditions under which a state can waive Clean Water Act (CWA) water quality certifications for federally approved projects, arguing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) wrongly excluded conditions for a dam in the Chesapeake Bay watershed that EPA has warned could imperil the bay’s cleanup. In their Feb. 4 opening brief in Waterkeepers Chesapeake, et al. v. FERC , environmentalists are urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to vacate FERC’s...