Supreme Court Rules Against EPA In Water Permitting Case
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court sided with San Francisco in its case against the U.S. EPA, which argued that the EPA has overstepped its authority under the Clean Water Act. According to the majority opinion, the agency does not have the authority “to include ‘end-result’ provisions” when setting specific discharge limits.
In their final ruling, the justices wrote that “Determining what steps a permittee must take to ensure that water quality standards are met is the EPA’s responsibility, and Congress has given it the tools needed to make that determination.”
Prior to the ruling, the burden fell on San Francisco’s two wastewater treatment plants to maintain the quality of the Pacific Ocean, where the wastewater is discharged.
Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the court, explained, “When a permit contains such requirements, a permittee that punctiliously follows every specific requirement in its permit may nevertheless face crushing penalties if the quality of the water in its receiving waters falls below the applicable standards.”
Conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett, who sided with the three liberal justices, wrote for the dissent, arguing that “discharges from components of San Francisco’s sewer system have allegedly led to serious breaches of the water quality standards, such as ‘discoloration, scum, and floating material, including toilet paper, in Mission Creek,” per CBS News.
Nevertheless, the Court decided in a 5-4 vote that the onus would not fall on San Francisco’s wastewater treatment operators to meet stringent water quality standards.
San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu wrote in a statement, “We are very pleased the Court issued the narrow decision San Francisco sought. This decision upholds the Clean Water Act’s critical role in protecting water quality and simply requires the EPA to fulfill its obligations under the Clean Water Act, as intended by Congress.”
Chiu added that “it’s not lawful to punish permitholders for things outside of their control, such as the end-result water quality of a shared body of water, where many other factors affect water quality.”