July, 16 2021, 01:01pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
National Press: Liz Trotter, ltrotter@earthjustice.org
Hawaiʻi Press: Zoe Woodcraft, zwoodcraft@earthjustice.org
In First Application of Supreme Court's "Maui" Clean Water Act Test, Environmental Protection Prevails
Hawai‘i federal court decides Maui county’s Lahaina facility requires clean water act permit.
WASHINGTON
Yesterday, the Hawai'i federal district court ruledthat Maui County is required to get a Clean Water Act permit for its injection wells at the Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility in West Maui, which are polluting local reefs with treated sewage. The ruling culminates a nine-year legal battle by Earthjustice, on behalf of the Hawai'i Wildlife Fund, Sierra Club - Maui Group, Surfrider Foundation, and West Maui Preservation Association, to stop degradation of the fragile marine environment.
The ruling holds national importance as the first instance in which a court has applied the Supreme Court's test for when pollutant discharges that reach surface waters via groundwater require a Clean Water Act permit, whichthe Supreme Court announced last year in an earlier phase of this case. Future legal battles over water contamination from pollution sources such as leaking pipelines, feedlot manure lagoons, and coal ash ponds could be impacted by yesterday's victory for clean water advocates in Hawai'i Federal Court.
"Communities across this country are fighting to protect their rivers, lakes, and oceans from pollution via groundwater, from Hawai'i to New York, and from Alabama to Montana. The Supreme Court held that polluters cannot evade the Clean Water Act by using groundwater as a sewer to convey pollution into our nation's waters," said David Henkin, senior attorney at Earthjustice who argued the case before the Supreme Court and the Hawai'i district court. "As the first court to apply the Supreme Court's test, the Hawai'i federal court's ruling is a victory for clean water, for justice, and for common sense."
If Maui County does not appeal, settlement terms negotiated in 2015 will go into effect mandating that Maui County invest at least $2.5 million in infrastructure to reuse treated wastewater from the Lahaina facility for irrigation in arid West Maui. Maui County will also be required to obtain and comply with a Clean Water Act permit for the Lahaina facility, which will ensure that any continued use of the injection wells will not harm water quality or the local reefs, which are home to incredibly vibrant ocean life.
Since the 1980s, Maui's Lahaina wastewater treatment facility has been discharging millions of gallons of treated sewage daily into groundwater that reaches the waters off Kahekili Beach Park, a favorite local snorkeling and surfing spot. Depending on local geological conditions, groundwater, which is any water that exists beneath the land's surface, can flow into major waterways like rivers, streams, and, as in the Maui case, the ocean.
Earthjustice is a non-profit public interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources, and wildlife of this earth, and to defending the right of all people to a healthy environment. We bring about far-reaching change by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws on behalf of hundreds of organizations, coalitions and communities.
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The Wall Street Journalreported Thursday that members of Trump's transition team and the new Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency have asked nominees under consideration to head the FDIC and OCC if the bank watchdogs could be eliminated and have their functions absorbed by the Treasury Department, which is set to be run by a billionaire hedge fund manager and crypto enthusiast.
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