Pioneer Reserve, LLC v. United States

Contracts; Environmental Mitigation Banking.

OPINION AND ORDER

ERIC G. BRUGGINK, Senior Judge

This case illustrates the confusion and unfairness which can inadvertently result from an agency acting simultaneously in both a contractual and regulatory capacity. The agency here is the United States Army Corps of Engineers operating through the Alaska Division (“the agency” or “the Corps”). By statute, the Corps is given responsibility to regulate the discharge of pollutants into waters of the United States. See 33 U.S.C. § 1344 (2016), In order to assist it in achieving that end, it has erected an…