Conservation Law Foundation v. Pike Fuels LP

In a Clean Water Act citizen suit brought by Conservation Law Foundation (CLF), the federal district court for the District of Connecticut granted summary judgment to the former owner and operator of a coastal bulk fuel storage terminal in New Haven, Connecticut, on claims that the owner-operator failed to consider climate change factors in its stormwater pollution prevention plan and to implement certain best management practices and/or control measures. With respect to the implementation-related claims, the court found that CLF had focused solely on whether the requirement in Connecticut’s General Permit for the Discharge of Stormwater Associated with Industrial Activity (the permit) to implement control measures constituting “best industry practices” imposed obligations on permittees to account for severe weather and climate change. The court found that even if the permit did require implementation of such measures, CLF did not show a genuine issue of material fact as to whether the owner-operator failed to implement a “technologically available” and “economically practicable and achievable” control measure, as required to establish a Clean Water Act violation. With respect to the claims that the owner-operator failed to “consider” climate change, the court found that CLF did not allege that it suffered a concrete injury traceable to this alleged failure and ruled that CLF therefore lacked standing for the claims. The court found that CLF’s claim that the defendant violated the permit by acting inconsistently with the goals and policies of the Connecticut Coastal Management Act failed on the additional basis that it sought to enforce state standards that exceeded federal standards. The court also ruled that CLF’s request for declaratory relief was moot after the owner-operator submitted evidence that it no longer owned or operated any coastal bulk fuel storage facilities but that CLF’s request for civil penalties was not moot. In addition, the court rejected the defendant’s claim that the permit was impermissibly vague. Although the court granted summary judgment to the defendant on all of the “Climate Change Counts,” the court granted summary judgment to CLF on its claim that the defendant failed to maintain an impervious containment area and denied summary judgment to both parties on CLF’s claim that the defendant infiltrated stormwater at the terminal in violation of the permit. The court granted in part and denied in part the owner-operator’s summary judgment motion as to a claim that the defendant failed to identify discharges to impaired waters and to document procedures for implementing impaired waters monitoring and granted summary judgment to the defendant on a claim of failure to comply with certain monitoring requirements.

The federal district court for the District of Connecticut denied a motion by the former owner and operator of a bulk petroleum storage terminal in New Haven to dismiss a second amended complaint filed by Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) in a citizen suit alleging that the defendant violated the Clean Water Act by failing to account for the effects of climate change in its operation of the terminal. CLF filed the second amended complaint after the defendant sold the terminal to a nonparty. The court rejected the defendant’s argument that the case was moot, finding that the defendant failed to submit any evidence “to sustain its heavy burden of establishing that the challenged conduct cannot reasonably be expected to recur” and therefore failed to demonstrate mootness with respect to CLF’s request for declaratory relief. The court further concluded that CLF’s request for civil penalties prevented the case from being moot. The court also concluded that CLF had constitutional standing. In addition, the court rejected the defendant’s arguments that CLF failed to state a claim for relief. Although the court questioned whether CLF acted in good faith in alleging “ongoing and continuous” violations at the time it filed its second amended complaint, the court found that the amended complaint sufficiently alleged such a violation because it related back to the original complaint’s adequate allegations. The court declined to rule at this stage of the litigation on whether the “best management practices” provision of the terminal’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit could be construed to impose climate change-related requirements. The court concluded that a fuller factual record was required to determine the scope of the operative permit, despite the defendant’s argument that the Connecticut Department of Energy & Environmental Protection’s inclusion, for the first time, of “resilience measures” in a 2024 draft and 2025 final version of a NPDES General Permit for the Discharge of Stormwater Associated with Industrial Activities suggested that such measures were not required by the terminal’s operative permit. The court also rejected the defendant’s contention that any such requirements in the permit would render the operative permit impermissibly vague. In addition, the court found that CLF’s allegations that the defendant violated the NPDES permit’s best management practices provision were sufficient to proceed and concluded that the record was not sufficiently developed for it to address whether CLF’s citizen suit impermissibly sought to enforce state standards that exceeded federal standards.

A magistrate judge in the federal district court for the District of Connecticut granted in part Conservation Law Foundation’s (CLF’s) motion to determine the sufficiency of defendant Pike Fuels Limited Partnership’s (Pike’s) answers and objections to CLF’s requests for admission in CLF’s citizen suit asserting that Pike violated the Clean Water Act and an industrial stormwater permit by failing to prepare a bulk petroleum storage terminal in New Haven, Connecticut, for the effects of climate change. The parties previously resolved most of their disputes regarding the adequacy of the defendants’ responses to the requests for admissions, the purpose of which is narrow the scope of issues for trial. The magistrate directed Pike to respond to six requests regarding whether Pike treats storm surge discharges as stormwater discharges and other requests related to how Pike considered the impacts of climate change factors. The court sustained Pike’s objections to six other requests for admissions on the grounds that the requests sought admission of purely legal conclusions or were too vague, imprecise, or speculative, including a request for admission that Pike could “take steps to modify” the New Haven terminal “to withstand the impacts of climate change” and various requests regarding Pike’s awareness regarding climate change factors.