Judge Backs CWA Liability For Coal Ash Leaks But Rejects Strict Penalties

A federal district judge has found Dominion Virginia Power liable under the Clean Water Act (CWA) for allowing contaminants to leak from its coal ash impoundments at a Chesapeake, VA, utility into groundwater that then flowed to protected surface waters, backing environmentalists' novel claims on liability but denying their calls for strict penalties. Judge John A. Gibney Jr.'s March 23 opinion in Sierra Club, et al., v. Dominion Virginia Power , before the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District...