It has been a busy year for challenges to the Clean Water Act’s coverage of groundwater contamination and discharge cases. On September 24, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decided two cases in an increasingly contentious circuit split. In Tenn. Clean Water Network v. TVA, 905 F.3d 436 (6th Cir. Sep. 24, 2018) and Ky. Waterways Alliance v. Ky. Utils. Co., 905 F.3d 925 (6th Cir. Sep. 24, 2018), the Sixth Circuit held that groundwater contamination from coal ash impoundments were not point source discharges.
These decisions are the most recent from Circuit Courts to address the ongoing disagreement between federal circuits on how to apply the Clean Water Act (CWA) to alleged pollution from groundwater into navigable waters.
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