The Supreme Court has struck a blow against the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by curtailing the sweeping powers of the agency that it had claimed under the Clean Water Act.
The nation’s highest court has reigned in the EPA’s alleged authority to oversee water pollution, stating that the Clean Water Act does not grant the agency the authority to regulate discharges into certain wetlands near bodies of water.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., writing for a majority of five justices, explained that the law only covers wetlands that have a continuous surface connection to those bodies of water.
“The reach of the Clean Water Act is notoriously unclear,” he wrote. “Any piece of land that is wet at least part of the year is in danger of being classified by E.P.A. employees as wetlands covered by the act, and according to the federal government, if property owners begin to construct a home on a lot that the agency thinks possesses the requisite wetness, the property owners are at the agency’s mercy.”
Justice Kavanaugh joined three liberal justices in issuing a concurring opinion, which said the decision would harm the EPA’s ability to combat pollution.
“By narrowing the act’s coverage of wetlands to only adjoining wetlands,” he wrote, “the court’s new test will leave some long-regulated adjacent wetlands no longer covered by the Clean Water Act, with significant repercussions for water quality and flood control throughout the United States.”