E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co. v. Train’s Empirical Analysis
1977
Citation profile
432 federal appellate · 22 district · 37 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 781 later decisions (39 by the Supreme Court) — most recently March 2025 · most notably Weinberger v. Romero-Barcelo (1982), United States v. Wilson (1992)
432 federal appellate · 22 district · 37 state decisions — followed in 11 states
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Appellate journey
reviewedthe decision below (from Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals)
Relationships
Applies 33 U.S.C. § 1251 (Alternative Water Sources Act of 2000) · 33 U.S.C. § 1311 · 33 U.S.C. § 1314 · 33 U.S.C. § 1316 · 33 U.S.C. § 1342 · 33 U.S.C. § 1362 · 33 U.S.C. § 1369
Relies on Permian Basin Area Rate Cases · Bowles v. Willingham · Train v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. · Environmental Protection Agency v. California Ex Rel. State Water Resources Control Board
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 781 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“best practicable control technology currently available”
8 later decisions quote this exact passage“(1) The term “agricultural point source” means any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance from which any irrigation return flow is discharged into navigable waters. (2) The term “irrigation return flow” means surface water, other than navigable waters, containing pollutants which result from the controlled application of water by any person to land used primarily for crops, forage growth, or nursery operations. COMMENT: This term includes water used for cranberry harvesting, rice crops, and other such controlled application of water to land for purposes of farm management. (3) The term “surface water” means water that flows exclusively across the surface of the land from the point of application to the point of discharge.”
7 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majoritye.g. Environmental Protection Agency v. National Crushed Stone Ass'n · Texas Oil & Gas Association Marathon Oil Company Trustees for Alaska Natural Resources Defense Council Cook Inlet Keeper National Wildlife Federation Alaska Clean Water Alliance Greenpeace Alaska Center for the Environment Alaska Marine Conservation Council Kachemak Bay Conservation Society Alaska Waveriders Union Oil Co. Ca Phillips Petroleum Shell Oil Co. Railroad Commission of Texas State of Texas v. United States Environmental Protection Agency, American Petroleum Institute v. United States Environmental Protection Agency Carol M. Browner, Administrator, United States Environmental Protection Agency, Railroad Commission State of Texas v. United States Environmental Protection Agency“The question, however, is not what a court thinks is generally appropriate to the regulatory process; it is what Congress intended for these regulations. It is clear that Congress intended these regulations to be absolute prohibitions.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.