On January 3, 2024, the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit reversed a district court decision that held that a Colorado gold mining company’s operation of four settling ponds constituted an unpermitted discharge of pollutants into navigable waters under the Clean Water Act (“CWA”).  In Stone v. High Mountain Mining Company, No. 22-1340 (10th Cir. 2024), the Tenth Circuit held that the district court did not correctly follow the Supreme Court’s decision in County of Maui v. Hawaii, 140 S. Ct. 1462 (2020) regarding the CWA’s applicability to indirect discharges to navigable waters. Read More »

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On January 2, 2024, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan issued an order to exclude the expert testimony of Dr. Robert Michaels in a series of cases related to the corrosive water in Flint, Michigan. Carthan, et al. v. Snyder et al, No. 5:16-cv-1044 (E.D. Mich. 2024). The court held that Dr. Michaels, in applying a methodology commonly employed by epidemiologists known as the Bradford Hill guidelines, failed to establish an association between corrosive water and skin and hair conditions, and without such, the testimony was unreliable and could not be used to infer causation between Flint water and reported skin rashes and hair loss.  Read More »

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