The State of Washington filed a friend-of-the-court brief in a 2003 federal case concerning the Port of Seattle's proposed third runway at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The case centered on whether the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was required to include all conditions set by the Washington State Department of Ecology in its Clean Water Act Section 404 permit, after a state appeals board added sixteen conditions to the original water quality certification. Washington argued that federal law gives states sole authority to enforce their own water quality standards on federally permitted projects, and that the Corps improperly ignored nine of those sixteen conditions.Open full document
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The State of Washington submitted this amicus curiae brief in a federal case concerning whether the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must incorporate all state-imposed conditions from a Clean Water Act Section 401 Certification into a Section 404 Permit. The case arose from the Port of Seattle’s proposal to construct a third runway at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, which required filling wetlands. Washington argues that the Corps violated state authority by selectively including only seven of sixteen conditions added by the Pollution Control Hearings Board to the 401 Certification.