"It's the Supreme Court showdown that almost didn't happen.
After months of wrangling between local officials over whether to settle the case, justices for the nation's highest court are poised to hear arguments tomorrow [Wednesday] in County of Maui v. Hawai'i Wildlife Fund, a heated debate over the scope of the Clean Water Act.
By next summer, the court will make a decision on a key question: Are pollutants that flow through groundwater from a single, identifiable source on their way to navigable waters subject to federal permitting requirements?
'The justices are going to be really interested in what the text of the Clean Water Act says,' said Drew Caputo, vice president of litigation for lands, wildlife and oceans for Earthjustice, the law firm that is backing the Hawai'i Wildlife Fund, the Sierra Club and other environmental groups in the case."
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