Supreme Court Weakens Rules on Discharging Raw Sewage Into U.S. Water Supplies

The United States Supreme Court has voted five to four to weaken rules that govern how much pollution is discharged into the country’s water supply, undermining the 1972 Clean Water Act.

The case involved San Francisco suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) after the city was found to have violated the terms of a permit required for the discharge of wastewater pollution into the Pacific Ocean, reported The Washington Post.

San Francisco officials argued that the EPA’s authority had been exceeded due to vague permit rules that made it impossible to tell when a line had been crossed.

The justices ruled that generic prohibitions against violations of water quality standards cannot be imposed by the EPA. The decision could impact businesses, as well as other cities like Boston, New York and Washington, DC that are adjacent to bodies of water.

The opinion by Justice Samuel Alito said the EPA would be blocked from issuing “end result” permits — those that put the permittee in charge of surface water quality, The Guardian reported.