Waterkeeper Alliance, Inc. v. Maryland Department of Agriculture

“There’s many a slip ‘twixt’ the cup and the lip.”

—Old English proverb

Although the parties have spent considerable time presenting, for our benefit, the substantive law pertaining to the merits of the case, none ensured that the procedural posture of the appeal was proper. For the forthcoming reasons, this Court must dismiss the present appeal for lack of jurisdiction.

I. BACKGROUND

The controversy giving rise to the present appeal began in the summer of 2007, when Waterkeeper Alliance, Inc. (“WKA”) submitted to the Maryland Department of Agriculture (“MDA”) a pair of requests for certain…