ELR Citation: 43 ELR 20004
No(s). 11-460 (U.S. Jan 8, 2013)

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed a lower court decision holding a water district liable under the CWA for violating its municipal separate storm sewer system permit. The lower court ruled that the violations occurred when the polluted water detected at the monitoring stations flowed out of concrete-lined portions of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers, where the monitoring stations are located, into lower, unlined portions of the same rivers. But the flow of water from an improved portion of a navigable waterway into an unimproved portion of the same waterway does not qualify as a "discharge of a pollutant" under the CWA. In South Florida Water Management District v. Miccosukee Tribe, 541 U.S. 95, 34 ELR 20021 (2004), the Court held that the transfer of polluted water between "two parts of the same water body" does not constitute a discharge of pollutants under the CWA. The lower court's decision cannot be squared with this holding. Ginsburg, J. delivered the opinion of the Court, in which Roberts, C.J., and Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas, Breyer, Sotomayor, and Kagan, JJ., joined. Alito, J., concurred in the judgment.