William Jones v. Robert Rose

MEMORANDUM

William Jones brought suit in federal district court against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Port of Portland, Portland General Electric Company, and various officials under the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 500 et seq., and the citizen suit provision of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 . We affirm.

Jones first appeals the district court’s denial of Clean Water Act relief premised on activities allegedly done by Portland General Electric Company sometime between 1989 and 1994. PGE sold the property soon after that and has not owned it or done anything on it for years. Citizen suits under the Clean Water Act can be brought only to redress ongoing violations, not violations that occurred, if at all, wholly in the past. Gwaltney of Smithfield, Ltd. v. Chesapeake Bay Found., Inc., 484 U.S. 49, 59, 64 , 108 S.Ct. 376 , 98 L.Ed.2d 306 (1987); Sierra Club v. Union Oil Co. of Ca., 853 F.2d 667, 671 (9th Cir.1988). On the present facts, Jones has not alleged an ongoing violation.

Jones also appeals the district court’s decision that the Army Corps of Engineers was not arbitrary, capricious, or contrary…