( September 29, 2026, 3:11 PM EDT) -- SAN FRANCISCO — A Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals panel held in a Sept. 28 opinion that a lawsuit filed by Washington against a gold mine owner and its parent company alleging liability under the Clean Water Act (CWA) for discharging pollutants from the mine into ground and surface waters in violation of permit limits is not barred by claim preclusion, reversing and remanding a federal judge’s grant of judgment on the pleadings after the defendants entered into a consent decree with an environmental group....