--- title: Audit, Compliance and Risk Blog | STP | County of Maui description: County of Maui | STP's blog giving insight into audit, compliance and risk issues for EHS, business and accounting. --- [![Specialty Technical Publishers](https://blog.stpub.com/hubfs/STP-logo-white-orange.png)](http://www.stpub.com/) - [My Account](http://stponline.stpub.com) - 1-800-251-0381 # Audit, Compliance and Risk Blog ## [Supreme Court provides greater clarity about when discharges to groundwater require Clean Water Act permits](https://blog.stpub.com/supreme-court-provides-greater-clarity-about-when-discharges-to-groundwater-require-clean-water-act-permits) Posted by [Jon Elliott](https://blog.stpub.com/author/jon-elliott) on Wed, Apr 29, 2020 - [Tweet](https://twitter.com/share) [![](https://blog.stpub.com/hubfs/contamination-4286704_1920.jpg) ](https://blog.stpub.com/supreme-court-provides-greater-clarity-about-when-discharges-to-groundwater-require-clean-water-act-permits) 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. [Read More](https://blog.stpub.com/supreme-court-provides-greater-clarity-about-when-discharges-to-groundwater-require-clean-water-act-permits) 1 Comment [Click here to read/write comments](https://blog.stpub.com/supreme-court-provides-greater-clarity-about-when-discharges-to-groundwater-require-clean-water-act-permits#comments-listing) Tags: [Business & Legal](https://blog.stpub.com/topic/business-legal), [EPA](https://blog.stpub.com/topic/epa), [CWA](https://blog.stpub.com/topic/cwa), [Hawaii Wildlife Fund](https://blog.stpub.com/topic/hawaii-wildlife-fund), [County of Maui](https://blog.stpub.com/topic/county-of-maui), [NPDES](https://blog.stpub.com/topic/npdes), [Supreme Court](https://blog.stpub.com/topic/supreme-court), [Groundwater discharge](https://blog.stpub.com/topic/groundwater-discharge), [water pollutants](https://blog.stpub.com/topic/water-pollutants) [All posts](https://blog.stpub.com/all) ### Follow Me ### Subscribe by Email ### Browse by Topic Area - [Accounting & Tax ](https://blog.stpub.com/topic/accounting-tax) - [Business & Legal ](https://blog.stpub.com/topic/business-legal) - [Corporate Governance  ](https://blog.stpub.com/../?Tag=Corporate+Governance) - [Environmental ](https://blog.stpub.com/../?Tag=Environmental) - [Global ](https://blog.stpub.com/../?Tag=Global) - [Health & Safety ](https://blog.stpub.com/topic/health-safety) - [Internet ](https://blog.stpub.com/../?Tag=Internet) - [Transportation ](https://blog.stpub.com/../?Tag=Transportation) ### Browse by Tag - [Environmental (344)](https://blog.stpub.com/topic/environmental) - [Business & Legal (309)](https://blog.stpub.com/topic/business-legal) - [Environmental risks (300)](https://blog.stpub.com/topic/environmental-risks) - [Health & Safety (296)](https://blog.stpub.com/topic/health-safety) - [EPA (283)](https://blog.stpub.com/topic/epa) - [Terms & Conditions](https://stphub.stpehs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/STP-Terms-of-Use-Dec-20.pdf) - [Privacy Policy](https://stphub.stpehs.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/STP-Privacy-Policy.pdf) - [License Agreement](https://stphub.stpehs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/STP-License-Agreement-Dec-20.pdf) - [Sitemap](http://stpub.com/sitemap) - [Support](http://stpub.com/support) © 2021 STP ComplianceEHS - All rights reserved