Pacific Coast Federation of Fisherman's Associations v. Glaser, No. 17-17130 (9th Cir. 2019)
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Plaintiffs filed suit alleging that the drainage system managed by defendants discharged pollutants into surrounding waters, in violation of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The Ninth Circuit held that the district court properly interpreted "discharges . . .from irrigated agriculture," as used in 33 U.S.C. 1342(l)(1), to mean discharges from activities related to crop production.
However, the panel held that the district court erred by placing the burden of demonstrating eligibility for the permit exception on plaintiffs, rather than on defendants, and by misinterpreting "entirely," as used in section 1342(l)(1). In this case, the district court's interpretation of the word "entirely" to mean "majority"— which both parties now concede was erroneous—was thus the but-for cause of the dismissal of plaintiffs' Vega Claim. The panel also held that the district court erred by placing the burden on plaintiffs to demonstrate that the discharges were not covered under section 1342(l)(1), rather than placing the burden on defendants to demonstrate that the discharges were covered under section 1342(l)(1). Furthermore the district court erred by striking plaintiffs' seepage and sediment theories of liability from plaintiffs' motion for summary judgment because the first amended complaint encompassed those claims. Accordingly, the panel reversed and remanded.
Court Description: Clean Water Act. The panel reversed the district court’s judgment in an action alleging that the drainage system managed by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the San Luis & Delta Mendota Water Authority discharged pollutants into surrounding waters in violation of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. §§ 1251–1387. The Central Valley Project is a federal water management project. The Grasslands Bypass Project, jointly administered by the defendants, is a tile drainage system that consists of a network of perforated drain laterals underlying farmlands in California’s Central Valley that catch irrigated water and direct it to surrounding waters. The Clean Water Act generally requires that government agencies obtain a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit before discharging pollutants from any point * The Honorable Douglas L. Rayes, United States District Judge for the District of Arizona, sitting by designation. P.C.F.F.A. V. GLASER 3 source into navigable waters of the United States. There is an exception to that permitting requirement “for discharges composed entirely of return flows from irrigated agriculture.” 33 U.S.C. § 1342(l)(1). The panel held that the district court properly interpreted “discharges . . . from irrigated agriculture,” as used in § 1342(l)(1), to mean discharges from activities related to crop production. The panel held that the district court ought to have begun its analysis with the statutory text, but its reliance on legislative history to construe this portion of the statute was not erroneous. The panel further held, however, that the district court erred by interpreting “entirely” to mean “majority,” and by placing the burden on plaintiffs to demonstrate that the discharges were not covered under § 1342(l)(1), rather than placing the burden on defendants to demonstrate that the discharges were covered under § 1342(l)(1). The panel concluded that the district court’s erroneous interpretation of the word “entirely” was the but- for cause of the dismissal of plaintiffs’ Vega claim (concerning groundwater discharges from lands underlying a solar product), and the panel therefore reversed the district court’s dismissal of that claim. The panel further concluded that the district court’s dismissal of plaintiffs’ other claims was also erroneous, reversed the dismissal of those claims, and remanded for the district court to reconsider them under the correct interpretation of § 1342(l)(1). The panel held that the district court erred by striking plaintiffs’ seepage and sediment theories of liability from plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment because the first amended complaint encompassed those claims. 4 P.C.F.F.A. V. GLASER
The court issued a subsequent related opinion or order on December 20, 2019.
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