Clean Water Act exemption upheld for farmers
In a decision with major implications for Western agriculture, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the Clean Water Act exemption for irrigation return flows. The ruling in Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations v. Nickels affirms that discharges from irrigated agriculture are exempt from federal permitting requirements so long as they do not include additional point source discharges unrelated to crop production. The case centered on California’s Grassland Bypass Project, a drainage system that conveys water from nearly 100,000 acres of farmland.
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