Coeur Alaska, Inc. v. Southeast Alaska Conservation Council et al. (557 U.S. 261)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided June 22, 2009 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 557 U.S. 261 · 129 S. Ct. 2458
- Decided
- June 22, 2009
- Term
- October Term 2008
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Kennedy
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion of the Court. These cases require us to address two questions under the Clean Water Act (CWA or Act). The first is whether the Act gives authority to the United States Army Corps of Engineers, or instead to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency), to issue a permit for the discharge of mining waste, called slurry. The Corps of Engineers (or Corps) has issued a permit to petitioner Coeur Alaska, Inc. (Coeur Alaska), for a discharge of slurry into a lake in southeast Alaska. The second question is whether, when the Corps issued that permit, the agency acted in accordance with law. We conclude that the Corps was the appropriate agency to issue the permit and that the permit is lawful. With regard to the first question, § 404(a) of the CWA grants the Corps the power to “issue permits ... for the discharge of . . . fill material.” 86 Stat. 884, 33 U. S. C. § 1344(a). But the EPA also has authority to issue permits for the discharge of pollutants. Section 402 of the Act grants the EPA authority to “issue a permit for the discharge of any pollutant,” “[e]xcept as provided in” §404. 33 U. S. C. § 1342(a). We conclude that because the slurry Coeur Alaska wishes to discharge is defined by regulation as “fill material,” 40 CFR §232.2 (2008), Coeur Alaska properly obtained its permit from the Corps of Engineers, under § 404, rather than…
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