US Supreme Court - Wetlands: Clean Water Act Faces Limitations
Posted on: Tuesday, 28 February 2006, 15:00 CST
By KEN THOMAS, Associated Press writer
The Supreme Court wrestled Tuesday with how far upstream the government should extend protections of the Clean Water Act, a case that could affect millions of acres of wetlands.
The justices, in two Michigan wetlands cases, are seeking to clarify whether building projects can be barred from property adjacent to tributaries that dump into waterways protected by the 1972 law or are separated from protected waters by a man-made berm.
Justice David Souter, questioning the attorney for property owner John Rapanos, suggested that limiting the law's reach could allow an "end-run around the regulation" by polluters.
"All you have to do is dump the pollutant upstream far away from the watershed and you get away scot-free," Souter told Sacramento attorney M. Reed Hopper.
But Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Antonin Scalia questioned whether an overly broad interpretation of the law might give regulators jurisdiction over storm drains and ditches.
"To call that waters of the United States seems to be extravagant," Scalia said.
Source: Columbian
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