Georgia-Pacific West, Inc. v. NEDC (U.S. Supreme Court)

Section 402 of the Clean Water Act requires a permit for the discharge of any pollutant from a “point source,” which is a “discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance.” In this case, the Ninth Circuit held that every culvert and ditched that channeled rainwater runoff from forest roads was a discharge from a point source. That holding invalidated EPA’s longstanding Silvicultural Rule, which exempts from permitting any forest road rainwater runoff. We filed a petition for certiorari, which the Supreme Court granted, and persuaded the Supreme Court to uphold the Silvicultural Rule on deference grounds.