U.S. top court rules for timber industry over road runoff
WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday endorsed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's long-standing decision not to require Clean Water Act permitting for stormwater that runs off logging roads.
The nine-member court ruled on a 7-1 vote, with Justice Stephen Breyer recused, that the EPA's conclusion was a reasonable interpretation of the law.
The dispute -- centering on two cases that the court consolidated -- has attracted intense interest from the timber industry, which is keen to be exempt from Clean Water Act permitting. A total of 31 state attorneys general weighed in to support Oregon, which also opposes permitting.
The case arose when the environmental group, the Northwest Environmental Defense Center, challenged EPA's interpretation of the law in federal court.
In Wednesday's opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy, writing for the majority, said that it was reasonable for EPA to conclude that runoff from logging roads did not fit within the definition in the Clean Water Act and associated regulations of the term "industrial activity."
Kennedy also noted that states already regulate logging roads, meaning the EPA "could reasonably have concluded that further regulation in this area would be duplicative or counterproductive."
Justice Antonin Scalia wrote a dissenting opinion in which he disagreed with the majority's view that the EPA interpretation of the law was reasonable.
The two cases are Decker v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 11-338 and Georgia-Pacific West Inc. v. Northwest Environmental Center, U.S. Supreme Court, No. 11-347.
(Editing by Chris Reese)