Alaska Community Action on Toxics v. Aurora Energy Services, LLC

FOR PUBLICATION

UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS

FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT

ALASKA COMMUNITY ACTION ON No. 13-35709

TOXICS; ALASKA CHAPTER OF THE

SIERRA CLUB, D.C. No. Plaintiffs-Appellants, 3:09-cv-00255-

TMB

v.

AURORA ENERGY SERVICES, LLC; OPINION

ALASKA RAILROAD CORPORATION,

Defendants-Appellees.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Alaska Timothy M. Burgess, District Judge, Presiding

Argued and Submitted August 13, 2014—Anchorage, Alaska

Filed September 3, 2014

Before: Jerome Farris, Dorothy W. Nelson, and Jacqueline H. Nguyen, Circuit Judges.

Opinion by Judge Farris SUMMARY*

Clean Water Act

The panel reversed the district court’s summary judgment entered in favor of Aurora Energy Services, LLC and Alaska Railroad Corporation in a citizen suit that challenged, pursuant to the Clean Water Act, defendants’ non-stormwater discharges of coal into Resurrection Bay, Alaska.

The panel held that the district court erred in concluding that the Multi-Sector General Permit for Stormwater Discharges Associated with Industrial Activity - a general permit under…