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

*1171 OPINION

Plaintiffs Alaska Community Action on Toxics and Alaska Chapter of the Sierra Club appeal from the district court’s grant of summary judgment to defendants Aurora Energy Services, LLC, and Alaska Railroad Corp. The district court ruled that defendants’ non-stormwater discharges of coal into Resurrection Bay, Alaska, complied with the Multi-Sector General Permit for Stormwater Discharges Associated with Industrial Activity — a general permit under EPA’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System — and thus defendants were shielded from liability under the Clean Water Act. We have jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 and hold that the General Permit prohibits defendants’ non-stormwater coal discharges. We reverse the district court’s judgment and remand for further proceedings.

I.

“Section 301(a) of the [Clean Water Act] prohibits the ‘discharge of any pollutant’ from any ‘point source’ into ‘navigable waters’ unless the discharge complies with certain other sections of the CWA.” Natural Res. Def. Council, Inc. v. Cnty. of L.A., 725 F.3d 1194, 1198 (9th Cir.2013) (citing 33 U.S.C. § 1311 (a)). “One of those sections is section 402, which provides for the…