Please invest in Our Daily Planet today, by making a one time or monthly contribution.
We do not charge our readers a subscription fee for our content. We want to continue to grow our readership, particularly among millennials and public servants. Voluntary contributions from readers will help us employ interns and freelance journalists, expand our content, and reach a larger audience.
If you make a contribution of $150 or more, you will become an official “Friend of the Planet” and receive a Friend of the Planet T-shirt or water bottle.
Our Daily Planet is a daily morning email (M-F) to keep you informed of the stories shaping our environment. If these issues matter to you, we’d like to be the best ten minutes of your morning.
A Maui Beach Photo: Ron Dahlquist, Associated Press via LA Times
In a huge win for the Clean Water Act, by a 6-3 majority, the Supreme Court held that municipalities and others that discharge pollution are subject to the Act’s restrictions when they discharge into groundwater or ditches and the pollution ends up in a water body covered by the law, such as a lake or the ocean. The Court created a new test, saying that an Environmental Protection Agency permit is required when a discharge — such as one into groundwater — is “the functional equivalent” of a direct release into navigable waters.
Why This Matters: A six vote majority for a pro-conservation interpretation of the Act, including the Chief Justice and Trump-appointee Kavanaugh, is significant beyond this case. As we wrote after oral arguments in the case, if the Court had found that a polluter is allowed to discharge into another medium like groundwater to effectively “launder” their pollution, it would have created a huge loophole in the Act. The law was already significantly narrowed this week when the Trump administration severely limited the definition of what constitutes a “navigable water” of the U.S. (the WOTUS rule). It’s some very good news on which to end Earth Week.
Environmental Lawyers Cheered the Ruling
One of the attorneys who argued the case before the court, David Henken, said, “This decision is a huge victory for clean water. The Supreme Court has rejected the Trump administration’s effort to blow a big hole in the Clean Water Act’s protections for rivers, lakes, and oceans.” Similarly, Harvard Law professor Richard Lazarus (our Interview of the Week last Friday)told The Washington Post “that the test endorsed by the court’s majority is ‘one under which environmentalists can prevail in most every kind of case that environmentalists have brought under the Clean Water Act.'” And the director of the University of Maryland’s environmental law program told E&E News in an email, “The fact that it commands the vote of six Justices is a hopeful sign that a solid majority of the Court understands the importance of laws like the Clean Water Act, which are fundamental to our nearly half-century effort to clean up America’s environment.”
What Happens Now?
The case is now remanded back to the lower court to hear arguments about how the Supreme Court’s new “functional equivalent” test should be applied to the facts in this case. According to The Wall Street Journal, Maui Mayor Michael Victorino said the ruling was “a step toward the clarity we have advocated for.” Mr. Henkin told The Journal that if Maui loses back at the lower court, they have a conditional settlement with Maui that would require the county to undertake a project that redirects its wastewater for recycled use in agriculture and golf-course irrigation. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit had ruled that a permit was required if the pollution was “fairly traceable” to a source, but the Supreme Court’s majority said that such an interpretation was too broad, so many saw the decision as a pragmatic compromise.
By Ashira Morris, ODP Staff Writer For decades, uranium mining has contaminated the Navajo Nation, causing higher cancer rates and water pollution. Even though the health risks and environmental harms of uranium mining are well-established, new operations continue to move forward. One local group, the Eastern Navajo Diné Against Uranium Mining (ENDAUM) hasn’t found a […]
By Natasha Lasky, ODP Staff Writer California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that he would extend the drought emergency statewide and issued an executive order to have residents conserve water. As part of this effort, eight new counties were added to the state of emergency, and authorized the State Water Resources Control Board was authorized to […]
By Elizabeth Love, ODP Contributing Writer Authorities in the Canadian Arctic territory Nunavut, announced a state of emergency this week due to a possible contamination event affecting the City of Iqaluit’s water supply. Tests were performed after residents reported the smell of gasoline coming from their tap water, but they came back clean. However, […]
Subscribe to the email that top lawmakers, renowned scientists, and thousands of concerned citizens turn to each morning for the latest environmental news and analysis.
Want the lastest climate news summarized for you each morning?
Our Daily Planet is your daily dose of the stories shaping our world and the ways that you can take action. From the climate crisis to the protection of biodiversity, if these issues matter to you then please subscribe & stay informed!
Your privacy is Important! We promise never to use your email address to send you spam or advertisements.