WAILUKU Groups that successfully sued a county in Hawaii over its use of injection wells have petitioned the county to withdraw its appeal of the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, a report said.
WAILUKU — Groups that successfully sued a county in Hawaii over its use of injection wells have petitioned the county to withdraw its appeal of the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, a report said.
Four groups delivered petitions Wednesday with 15,962 signers, including 735 from Hawaii, The Maui News reported Thursday.
The groups include the Hawaii Wildlife Fund, Surfrider Foundation, West Maui Preservation Association, and the Sierra Club. An attorney from environmental law organization Earthjustice accompanied the organization members.
The groups sued the county in 2012 over use of injection wells at the Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility, saying liquid waste reached the ocean and impacted coral reefs.
The county argued the treated wastewater discharged by the wells did not require federal Clean Water Act permits because the pollutants flowed indirectly through groundwater and not directly into the ocean.
The U.S. District Court in Hawaii ruled in 2014 that the county’s use of injection wells violated the Clean Water Act. Earlier this year the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case after circuit courts around the country were split over the Clean Water Act’s authority. The Supreme Court could take up the case in November.
“The loophole the county seeks would allow industrial and municipal polluters to evade regulation under the Clean Water Act simply by moving their discharges just short of the shores of navigable waters, or disposing of pollutants via groundwater,” said Earthjustice attorney Mahesh Cleveland.
The lower court’s decision “creates a costly and potentially impossible regulatory burden on municipalities and taxpayers,” said Maui County spokesman Brian Perry.
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Information from: The Maui News, http://www.mauinews.com
