Audit, Compliance and Risk Blog

Supreme Court provides greater clarity about when discharges to groundwater require Clean Water Act permits

Posted by Jon Elliott on Wed, Apr 29, 2020

On April 23, a six-member majority of the United States Supreme Court issued a decision that narrows the uncertainty about when a discharge of water pollutants to groundwater may require a Clean Water Act (CWA) permit (County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund). The decision directly vacates the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision it reviews, and effectively over-rules decisions by the Fourth and Sixth Circuits that differed with the Ninth Circuit but are also inconsistent with the Supreme Court’s new analysis. It also overturns guidance issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2019 categorically excluding discharges from point sources to groundwater from regulation under the CWA National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program; EPA's policy applied nationwide except in those three judicial circuits.

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Tags: Business & Legal, EPA, CWA, Hawaii Wildlife Fund, County of Maui, NPDES, Supreme Court, Groundwater discharge, water pollutants