Supreme Court’s Denial of Certiorari Leaves a Circuit Split on the Scope for Citizen Enforcement Under Clean Water Act – Update from Manko Gold Katcher Fox
September 4, 2025
Sean F. Fahy, Esq.
MGKF Litigation Blog
On June 30, 2025, the Supreme Court denied the Port of Tacoma (the “Port”) and SSA Terminals LLC’s (“SSA”) petition for writ of certiorari to review the 9th Circuit’s decision in Port of Tacoma v. Puget Soundkeeper Alliance addressing whether the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) authorizes citizens to enforce conditions of state-issued pollutant discharge permits adopted under state law that impose a greater scope of coverage than required by the CWA. The 9th Circuit answered this question in the affirmative, holding that Washington’s Industrial Stormwater General Permits (“ISGP”), a CWA National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) permit, required the Port and SSA to have the necessary stormwater controls across the entire West Sitcum Terminal (the “Terminal”). The Supreme Court’s recent decision to deny certiorari leaves litigants open to a patchwork of Circuit determinations on the scope of the CWA’s citizen suit provision.
Read the full blog post.