Tag Archives: U.S. Circuit Judge Julius Richardson
Panel hears debate on whether dead fish are pollutants
A Fourth Circuit panel heard arguments Tuesday over whether dead fish dumped back into the water by shrimping boats counts as pollution under the Clean Water Act. “You never know what you’re going to pull up fishing,” attorney Brian David Schmalzbach of McGuireWoods, who argued on behalf of shrimp fisheries, told the three-judge panel.,, And, your honors, contrary to the briefing from the appellees, this is right down the middle of the barrel of the Clean Water Act,” said attorney James L. Conner of Calhoun Bhella & Sechrest, who represents the North Carolina Coastal Fisheries Reform Group, at Tuesday’s hearing. “Are you still arguing that putting live fish back in the water is a pollutant?” Conner began to respond but Rushing interjected with a follow-up question. “You’re not arguing that live fish are a biological material? Only dead fish are a biological material?” she asked. >click to read< 20:00
