Garland v. Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board

Opinion

BUTZ, J.

This appeal concerns the scope of the government’s jurisdiction under the federal Clean Water Act (the Act; 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq.) to regulate water pollutants. Enacted in 1972, the Act prohibits any person from discharging a pollutant into “navigable waters”—i.e., into “the waters of the United States”—from a “point source” (a discrete conveyance of pollutants) without a permit. (See 33 U.S.C. §§ 1251 et seq., 1311(a), 1342(a), 1362(7), (12), (14).)1

In Rapanos v. United States (2006) 547 U.S. 715 [165 L.Ed.2d 159, 126 S.Ct. 2208] (Rapanos), its most recent decision on the…