"The US Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Wednesday in a case with high stakes for the Clean Water Act as environmentalists warn the justices may be poised to weaken the law.
Environmental attorneys say they’ll be watching the justices’ approach to the case in the wake of its June Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo ruling, which cast aside the Chevron doctrine that provided for deference to federal agencies’ interpretation of federal law and regulations.
The case is among the high court’s first opportunities to weigh in on federal environmental regulations in a post-Chevron world, said Brian Bell, a partner at Dorsey & Whitney LLP in Minneapolis.
The central question in City and County of San Francisco v. EPA is whether the agency can require wastewater systems to comply with nonspecific, or “narrative,” effluent limitations set in National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits that may speak to aesthetic qualities of water the EPA may want to maintain."
Bobby Magill reports for Bloomberg Environment October 15, 2024.
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