4 Bros. is a dairy and concentrated animal feeding operation operating in Shoshone with at least 1,000 head of cattle. It maintains waste-water lagoons that are adjacent to the Milner-Gooding Canal, which flows to the Malad River and on to the Snake and Columbia Rivers. In the winter season of 2017, record precipitation, record snowpack, and flooding occurred, leading to extreme runoff at the 4 Bros. property. In February 2017, during this period of flooding, 4 Bros. and Fitzgerald negligently caused discharges of manure-laden water into the Milner Gooding Canal at three locations.

Specifically, on February 10, 2017, a catchment area on the east side of the dairy overtopped, inadvertently breached, and discharged snowmelt along with manure into the canal. 4 Bros. and Fitzgerald were aware of the discharge during that time but did not attempt to repair the lagoon until February 23, 2017. 4 Bros. and Fitzgerald admitted that failing to repair the discharge for 14 days was criminally negligent under the circumstances.

Two other discharges occurred between February 19 and February 22, 2017. On the west side of the dairy, 4 Bros. used earth-moving equipment to cut open a berm and lined it with plastic to cause manure-laden wastewater from a lagoon to flow into the canal. At the central portion of the dairy, 4 Bros. mechanically pumped manure-laden wastewater from a wastewater lagoon into the canal. 4 Bros. additionally admitted that these discharges were negligent under the circumstances.

• Clean Water Act (CWA)