Draft guidance from the US Environmental Protection Agency provides a clearer look at how the agency intends to apply the US Supreme Court's "functional equivalent" analysis to determine when National Pollutant Discharge...more
On December 8, 2020, U.S. EPA announced issuance of draft guidance to clarify its view of how the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund decision should be applied to its Clean Water Act National...more
In April, the United States Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling clarifying the reach of the federal Clean Water Act. The Court decided that a discharge of pollutants from a point source to groundwater is subject to...more
On April 23, 2020, the United States Supreme Court clarified and expanded when a person is obligated to obtain a discharge permit under the federal Clean Water Act (Act)....more
As we have reported in previous articles, controversy over whether the Clean Water Act (CWA) regulates discharges of pollutants that travel through groundwater into surface waters has led to significant litigation across the...more
The Supreme Court’s most recent voyage into Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisprudence came in County of Maui, Hawaii v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, 590 U. S. ____ (2020) (Slip Op.), which concerned whether CWA permits are required in...more
The Situation: The Supreme Court held that a discharge through groundwater that is the functional equivalent of a direct discharge to navigable waters requires a Clean Water Act permit. The Result: Some discharges to...more
On April 23 the Supreme Court announced its decision in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund (No. 18-260), which addressed the fundamental issue of what is a discharge to navigable waters requiring a permit under the Clean...more
On 23 April 2020 the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 opinion written by Justice Stephen Breyer, waded carefully into the very-muddied waters of Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisprudence when it issued a new test to determine when the...more
Justice Breyer used the above folksy culinary analogy in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, decided April 23, 2020, to explain why a NPDES permit could be required for the discharge of wastewater to groundwater and then...more
In a busy week for environmental decisions, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled on April 23, 2020 on its second major case, County of Maui v. Hawai’i Wildlife Fund, finding a middle ground in its 6-3 decision on...more
Uncertainty has long reigned over the reach of the federal Clean Water Act, which applies to “navigable waters,” defined by statute only as “waters of the United States.” Over the last several decades of debate about federal...more
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a long-awaited decision in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund et al., 590 U.S. __ (2020), in which it determined that the Clean Water Act (CWA) requirements for a National...more
The Supreme Court ruled on April 23, 2020 that federal law can require a permit for pollutant discharges that travel through groundwater to surface water. The Court’s ruling establishes a new standard by which a Clean Water...more
On April 23, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision held that the Clean Water Act (CWA) requires a permit for either a direct discharge from a point source into navigable waters, or the functional equivalent of a...more
The United States Supreme Court has finally weighed in on whether discharging pollutants to groundwater constitutes a discharge to waters of the United States and triggers the need for a discharge permit under the federal...more
On April 23, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its much-awaited decision in County of Maui v. Hawai’i Wildlife Fund on whether the Clean Water Act (CWA) regulates the discharge of pollutants that pass through groundwater...more
Last week, the Supreme Court addressed a longstanding issue about whether pollutants discharged to groundwater but that eventually reach a navigable water of the United States are subject to federal regulation under the Clean...more
Last Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) requires a permit to discharge pollutants that reach “navigable waters” through groundwater, but only if the discharge is the “functional equivalent...more
In a 6-3 opinion issued on April 23, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Clean Water Act regulates activities that release pollutants that are eventually conveyed through groundwater to navigable water. The ruling is...more
In a 6-3 decision on Thursday, the United States Supreme Court vacated and remanded the opinion of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and found that the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) regulated discharges from point sources “if the...more
In a decision which seems likely to inject yet more uncertainty into whether the introduction of pollutants to surface waters via groundwater triggers the permitting requirements of the Clean Water Act (“CWA”), a majority of...more
The Clean Water Act sometimes requires a permit for the indirect discharge of pollutants from a point source to navigable waters, but only when the discharge is the “functional equivalent” of a direct discharge, the Supreme...more
On April 23, the United States Supreme Court held that discharges to groundwater may require a permit under the Clean Water Act if they are the “functional equivalent” of discharges directly to navigable waters. This ruling...more
On April 23, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund that a federal permit is required under the Clean Water Act (CWA) when a discharge to groundwater is the “functional equivalent” of a...more