By:  Alexander J. Bandza

As part of the “Environmental & Energy Cert. Petition Watch” project, in the past week, the following EHS-related petitions have been filed, denied, or granted.  For a full list of EHS-related cert petitions submitted from August 2013 through the present (as of February 2, 2014), click here.

I.          FILED

Los Angeles County Flood Control Dist. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., No. 13-901

Lower Court:  9th Cir.   

Subject:  Clean Water Act          

Question(s) Presented:  (1.) Does Calderon v. Thompson, 523 U.S. 538 (1998) bar a circuit court from reconsidering an issue after the time in which to seek rehearing in the circuit court and certiorari in this Court has passed, and where this Court relied on the finality of the circuit court decision in exercising its jurisdiction?  (2.) Can a multi-jurisdiction municipal storm-water permit issued under the Clean Water Act be construed to impose liability on a co-permittee without evidence that the co-permittee discharged pollutants in violation of the permit, where federal regulations provide that each co-permittee is only responsible for its own discharges and where the monitoring specified in the permit measures pollutants discharged by multiple upstream sources without any means to measure the contribution of any individual co-permittee?                                   

II.         DENIED

(None.)

III.        GRANTED

(None.)