Homestake Mining Co. v. United States Environmental Protection Agency

Congress enacted the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA), later amended by the Clean Water Act, in order to clean up, prevent, and control pollution in the nation’s waterways. The statute was complex and included multiple types and stages of restrictions on the discharge of pollutants. The statute also created a permitting process through which entities could gain National Pollution Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) (defendant) that allowed for the regulated release of pollutants. The FWPCA required states to revise their water-quality standards to come into compliance with the act. When South Dakota (defendant) revised its water-quality standards, it instituted standards that were in fact stricter than those mandated by the FWPCA. Homestake Mining Company (Homestake) (plaintiff) was a mining company operating in South Dakota that sought and received a NPDES permit from the EPA. After receiving the permit, Homestake filed suit against the EPA and South Dakota. Homestake alleged that the EPA’s approval of South Dakota’s more stringent water-quality rules, which were incorporated into the NPDES permit Homestake received, were arbitrary and capricious and that the EPA’s permitting process was invalid because the EPA had not yet complied with every action that the FWPCA imposed on the agency. The FWPCA included, however, a provision that allowed for the issuance of permits prior to the actual implementation of every other requirement imposed by the act on the EPA. Both Homestake and the EPA and South Dakota filed motions for summary judgment.