Recent U.S. Supreme Court Decisions Impacting Environmental and Regulatory Law

2012–2013 Decisions

Clean Water Act

Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 133 S. Ct. 710, decided January 8, 2013.

In this matter, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling in a municipal stormwater control case involving the stormwater management of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers. The Court held that there was no “discharge of a pollutant” into navigable waters under the Clean Water Act (“CWA”) when contaminated water “flows from one portion of a river that is a navigable water of the United States through a concrete channel or other engineered improvement in the river, and then into a lower portion of the same river.” Justice Ginsburg’s opinion notes that in South Florida Water Management District v. Miccosukee Tribe,¹ the Court held that the transfer of contaminated water between two parts of the same water body does not constitute the regulated discharge of pollutants.

The Court’s opinion clarifies the concept of a discharge of a pollutant—the linchpin of the CWA’s permitting programs—in the context of the operations of a large and complicated municipal wastewater control agency. In addition, this ruling relieves some of the uncertainties regarding the scope of large municipal stormwater management systems.

Decker, Oregon State Forester, et al. v. Northwest Environmental Defense Center, 133 S. Ct. 1326, decided March 20, 2013.

The Court held in a 7-1 decision that CWA National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) permits are not required for stormwater runoff from logging roads. The opinion, written by Justice Kennedy, held that: (a) a citizen suit was the proper vehicle for challenging the application of the EPA rule in question; and (b) deference consistent with the Court’s 1997 decision in Auer v. Robbins ² would be accorded to EPA’s interpretation of its own regulation, the Industrial Stormwater Rule, which exempted such stormwater discharges from NPDES regulation.

Download: Recent U.S. Supreme Court Decisions Impacting Environmental and Regulatory Law

1. 541 U.S. 95 (2004).
2. 519 U.S. 452 (1997).