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FWS Seeks Public Input on Multiple ESA Recovery Permit Applications

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) announced its receipt of multiple applications for permits to conduct activities intended to enhance the propagation or survival of Endangered Species Act-protected species, including insects, birds, reptiles, fish, amphibians, and mammals. FWS will accept public comments on the proposed permits through September 8, 2023.

Federal Court Denies Federal Agencies’ Motion to Dismiss ESA Case Relating to EPA Approval Process for Limits on Aquatic Cyanide Pollution in Washington State

The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia denied a motion to dismiss filed by several federal agencies in a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity challenging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) failure to “perform statutorily required consultations with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service” pursuant to the Endangered Species Act (ESA) prior to the EPA’s approval of Washington state limits on aquatic cyanide pollution. U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell concluded that the EPA has an “ongoing obligation” to ensure those standards do not imperil endangered species and that the plaintiff had pleaded “sufficient facts to assert that defendants violated [consultation regulations under the ESA].”

Fourth Circuit Affirms that Shrimpers Who Toss Bycatch and Disturb Sediments are not “Discharging a Pollutant” in Violation of the CWA

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled that shrimpers don't violate the Clean Water Act (CWA) when they throw bycatch overboard and disturb sediment with their trawl nets as alleged by North Carolina Coastal Fisheries Reform Group and a group of individual plaintiffs. The Fourth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of the case, finding that because “[r]eturning bycatch to the ocean is not discharging a pollutant” and “trawl nets merely kick up sediment already present,” the activities do not violate the CWA.