Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.

The Court granted review in this case limited to a single question: Under the Clean Water Act (CWA), 86 Stat. 816, as amended, 33 U. S. C. § 1251 et seq., does the flow of water out of a concrete channel within a river rank as a “discharge of a pollutant”? In this Court, the parties and the United States as amicus curiae agree that the answer to this question is “no.” They base this accord on South Fla. Water Management Dist. v. Miccosukee Tribe, 541 U. S. 95, 109-112 (2004), in which we accepted that pumping polluted water from one part of a water body into another part of the same body is…