ONRC Action v. Columbia Plywood, Inc.

In 1997, Plaintiffs ONRC Action and Klamath Forest Alliance (collectively “ONRC”) brought a citizen lawsuit under the Clean Water Act against defendant Columbia Plywood. ONRC’s claims centered upon its contention that Columbia Plywood’s National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) permit expired in 1989 or 1994 and that, therefore, Columbia Plywood’s continued discharge of pollutants into the Klamath River in Oregon was unlawful.

The district court exercised jurisdiction over ONRC’s first claim, which alleged that Columbia Plywood’s NPDES permit was invalid due to Columbia Plywood’s failure to file a timely renewal application. Under O.A.R. § 340-045-0030(1), permit renewal requests must be filed at least 180 days before a permit expires. ONRC alleged that Columbia Plywood filed its 1989 permit renewal request substantially less than 180 days before its 1984 permit expired. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of Columbia Plywood on this claim. The court held that, although the permit renewal request was tardy, Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality (“DEQ”) had validly waived the 180-day time limitation by accepting the request.

ONRC asserted…

concurring in part and dissenting in part:

I agree with the majority with respect to ONRC Action’s first claim — it fails on the merits. Because I conclude, however, that ONRC Action’s Notice as to its second and third claims was sufficient, and that ONRC Action should have prevailed on its third claim, I respectfully dissent in part from the portion of the opinion regarding those claims.

Under the 60-day citizen suit notice requirement of the Federal Clean Water Act, ONRC Action was required, in its Notice of Intent to Sue, to “provide sufficient information of a violation so that the [recipients] could identify and attempt to abate the violation.” Southwest Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, 143 F.3d 515, 522 (9th Cir.1998). See also Natural Resources Defense Council v. Southwest Marine, Inc., 236 F.3d 985, 996 (9th Cir.2000), cert denied, 533 U.S. 902 , 121 S.Ct. 2242 , 150 L.Ed.2d 230 (2001) (“[T]he notice must be sufficiently specific to inform "the alleged violator about what it is doing wrong, so that it will know what corrective actions will avert a lawsuit.”). Although we made it clear in Southwest Center that notice must be specific, we did…