Del Ackels v. United States Environmental Protection Agency William K. Reilly

INTRODUCTION

Petitioners Del Aekels, Stanley C. Ryba-chek, Rosalie A. Rybachek, Glenn Bouton, Donald Stein, Lela Bouton, and Richard Ger-aghty, are individual miners who have engaged in gold placer mining in Alaska. They filed this petition pro se asking us to review permits issued to them by the Environmental Protection Agency. The permits are National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits issued under the authority of the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C. §§ 1251-1387 , pursuant to the regulatory framework established by the EPA. The permits impose effluent limitations, including numerical limits for specific pollutants in the discharge, and require specific technological practices miners must follow.

This court first considered NPDES permits for placer miners in Trustees for Alaska v. EPA, 749 F.2d 549 (9th Cir.1984). The opinion in that case described the sluicing process used to remove gold from “placers,” which are alluvial or glacial deposits containing gold particles. This sluicing process results in the discharge of waste water which, if untreated, can create a serious environmental hazard to wildlife, particularly in the case of larger placer mining…