33 U.S.C. § 1364
Section 1364 · Emergency powers
Amended 4 times on record
Applied in 20 court decisions — leading case 51 Cal. 3d 807 - AIU Insurance v. Superior Court (1990)
Most recently applied in City and County of San Francisco v. EPA (March 2025)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the Administrator upon receipt of evidence that a pollution source or combination of sources is presenting an imminent and substantial endangerment to the health of persons or to the welfare of persons where such endangerment is to the livelihood of such persons, such as inability to market shellfish, may bring suit on behalf of the United States in the appropriate district court to immediately restrain any person causing or contributing to the alleged pollution to stop the discharge of pollutants causing or contributing to such pollution or to take such other action as may be necessary.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Amendments
1980—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 96–510 struck out subsec. (b) which related to emergency assistance, establishment of an emergency fund, and preparation of a contingency plan for such emergencies.
1977—Pub. L. 95–217 designated existing provisions as subsec. (a) and added subsec. (b).
Effective Date of 1980 Amendment
Amendment by Pub. L. 96–510 effective Dec. 11, 1980, see section 9652 of Title 42, The Public Health and Welfare.