APPENDIX

31a
centrated animal feeding operation, or vessel
or other floating craft, from which pollutants
are or may be discharged.
33 U.S.C. § 1362(14). The definition in no way depends
on the manner in which the pollutant arrives
at the “discernible, confined and discrete conveyance.”
That is, it makes no difference whether the
pollutant arrives as the result of “controlled water
used by a person” or through natural runoff.
We agree with the analysis of the district court in
Environmental Protection Information Center v. Pacific
Lumber Co. (“EPIC”), 2003 WL 25506817 (N.D.
Cal. 2003). Relying on Forsgren, Judge Patel concluded
that stormwater runoff from logging roads
that was collected in a system of ditches, culverts,
and channels, and then discharged into protected
water, was a point source discharge requiring an
NPDES permit. After an extensive analysis, the district
court wrote:
The water runoff system this action addresses
is an elaborate and extensive one.
Blending a variety of drainage methods, the
system covers a substantial amount of land
and addresses a significant amount of water.
Where this runoff system involves “surface
drainage[ ] or road construction from which
there is natural runoff,” section 122.27 [the
Silvicultural Rule] may control. But where
the system utilizes the kind of conduits and
channels embraced by section 502(14), section
122.27 does not control: It cannot control,
for one, because section 502(14) of the
CWA trumps section 122.27’s operation, as
EPA may not alter the definition of an existing
“point source.” And it cannot control, for