Cnty. of Maui v. Haw. Wildlife Fund

• Decision Date: 23 April 2020
• Docket Number: No. 18-260,18-260
• Citation: 140 S.Ct. 1462,206 L.Ed.2d 640
• Parties: COUNTY OF MAUI, HAWAII, Petitioner v. HAWAII WILDLIFE FUND, et al.
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

140 S.Ct. 1462

206 L.Ed.2d 640

COUNTY OF MAUI, HAWAII, Petitioner

v.HAWAII WILDLIFE FUND, et al.

No. 18-260

Supreme Court of the United States.

Argued November 6, 2019

Decided April 23, 2020

County of Maui, Moana M. Lutey, Richelle M. Thomson, Maui, HI, Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP, Elbert Lin, Michael R. Shebelskie, Richmond, VA, Colleen P. Doyle, Diana Pfeffer Martin, Los Angeles, CA, for Petitioner.

Scott L. Nelson, Public Citizen, Litigation Group, Washington, DC, Amanda C. Leiter, American University, Washington College of Law, Washington, DC, David L. Henkin, Earthjustice, Honolulu, HI, Janette K. Brimmer, Earthjustice, Seattle, WA, for Respondents.

Justice BREYER delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Clean Water Act forbids the "addition" of any pollutant from a "point source" to "navigable waters" without the appropriate permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Federal Water Pollution Control Act, §§ 301(a), 502(12)(A), as amended by the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 (Clean Water Act) § 2, 86 Stat. 844, 886, 33 U.S.C. §§ 1311(a), 1362(12)(A). The question presented here is whether the Act "requires a permit when pollutants originate from a point source but are conveyed to navigable waters by a nonpoint source," here, "groundwater." Pet. for Cert. i. Suppose, for example, that a sewage treatment plant discharges polluted water into the ground where it mixes with groundwater, which, in turn, flows into a navigable river, or perhaps the ocean. Must the plant's owner seek an EPA permit before emitting the pollutant? We conclude that the statutory provisions at issue require a permit if the addition of the pollutants through groundwater is the functional equivalent of a direct discharge from the point source into navigable waters.

I

A

Congress' purpose as reflected in the language of the Clean Water Act is to " ‘restore and maintain the ... integrity of the Nation's waters,’ " § 101(a), 86 Stat. 816. Prior to the Act, Federal and State Governments regulated water pollution in large part by setting water quality standards. See EPA v. California ex rel. State Water Resources Control Bd. , 426 U.S. 200, 202–203, 96 S.Ct. 2022, 48 L.Ed.2d 578 (1976). The Act restructures federal regulation by insisting that a person wishing to discharge any pollution into navigable waters first obtain EPA's permission to do so. See id., at 203–205, 96 S.Ct. 2022 ; Milwaukee v. Illinois , 451 U.S. 304, 310–311, 101 S.Ct. 1784, 68 L.Ed.2d 114 (1981).

The Act's provisions use specific definitional language to achieve this result. First, the Act defines "pollutant" broadly, including in its definition, for example, any solid waste, incinerator residue, " ‘heat,’ " " ‘discarded equipment,’ " or sand (among many other things). § 502(6), 86 Stat. 886. Second, the Act defines a "point source" as " ‘any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance ... from which pollutants are or may be discharged,’ " including, for example, any " ‘container,’ " " ‘pipe, ditch, channel, tunnel, conduit,’ " or " ‘well.’ " § 502(14), id., at 887. Third, it defines the term "discharge of a pollutant" as " ‘any addition of any pollutant to navigable waters [including navigable streams, rivers, the ocean, or coastal waters] from any point source.’ " § 502(12), id., at 886.

The Act then sets forth a statutory provision that, using these terms, broadly states that (with certain exceptions) " ‘the discharge of any pollutant by any person’ " without an appropriate permit " ‘shall be unlawful.’ " § 301, id., at 844. The question here, as we have said, is whether, or how, this statutory language applies to a pollutant that reaches navigable waters only after it leaves a "point source" and then travels through groundwater before reaching navigable waters. In such an instance, has there been a "discharge of a pollutant," that is, has there been "any addition of any pollutant to navigable waters from any point source? "

B

The petitioner, the County of Maui, operates a wastewater reclamation facility on the island of Maui, Hawaii. The facility collects sewage from the surrounding area, partially treats it, and pumps the treated water through four wells hundreds of feet underground. This effluent, amounting to about 4 million gallons each day, then travels a further half mile or so, through groundwater, to the ocean.

In 2012, several environmental groups, the respondents here, brought this citizens' Clean Water Act lawsuit against Maui. See § 505(a), id., at 888. They claimed that Maui was "discharg[ing]" a "pollutant" to "navigable waters," namely, the Pacific Ocean, without the permit required by the Clean Water Act. The District Court, relying in part upon a detailed study of the discharges, found that a considerable amount of effluent from the wells ended up in the ocean (a navigable water). It wrote that, because the "path to the ocean is clearly ascertainable," the discharge from Maui's wells into the nearby groundwater was "functionally one into navigable water." 24 F.Supp.3d 980, 998 (Haw. 2014). And it granted summary judgment in favor of the environmental groups. See id., at 1005.

The Ninth Circuit affirmed the District Court, but it described the relevant statutory standard somewhat differently. The appeals court wrote that a permit is required when "the pollutants are fairly traceable from the point source to a navigable water such that the discharge is the functional equivalent of a discharge into the navigable water." 886 F.3d 737, 749 (2018) (emphasis added). The court left "for another day the task of determining when, if ever, the connection between a point source and a navigable water is too tenuous to support liability ...." Ibid.

Maui petitioned for certiorari. In light of the differences in the standards adopted by the different Courts of Appeals, we granted the petition. Compare, e.g., 886 F.3d at 749 ("fairly traceable"), with Upstate Forever v. Kinder Morgan Energy Partners, L. P. , 887 F.3d 637, 651 (C.A.4 2018) ("direct hydrological connection"), and Kentucky Waterways Alliance v. Kentucky Util. Co. , 905 F.3d 925, 932–938 (C.A.6 2018) (discharges through groundwater are excluded from the Act's permitting requirements).

II

The linguistic question here concerns the statutory word "from." Is pollution that reaches navigable waters only through groundwater pollution that is "from" a point source, as the statute uses the word? The word "from" is broad in scope, but context often imposes limitations. "Finland," for example, is often not the right kind of answer to the question, "Where have you come from?" even if long ago you were born there.

The parties here disagree dramatically about the scope of the word "from" in the present context. The environmental groups, the respondents, basically adopt the Ninth Circuit's view—that the permitting requirement applies so long as the pollutant is "fairly traceable" to a point source even if it traveled long and far (through groundwater) before it reached navigable waters. They add that the release from the point source must be "a proximate cause of the addition of pollutants to navigable waters." Brief for Respondents 20.

Maui, on the other hand, argues that the statute creates a "bright-line test." Brief for Petitioner 27–28. A point source or series of point sources must be "the means of delivering pollutants to navigable waters." Id., at 28. They add that, if "at least one nonpoint source (e.g., unconfined rainwater runoff or groundwater)" lies "between the point source and the navigable water," then the permit requirement "does not apply." Id., at 54. A pollutant is "from" a point source only if a point source is the last "conveyance" that conducted the pollutant to navigable waters.

The Solicitor General, as amicus curiae , supports Maui, at least in respect to groundwater. Reiterating the position taken in a recent EPA "Interpretive Statement," see 84 Fed. Reg. 16810 (2019), he argues that, given the Act's structure and history, "a release of pollutants to groundwater is not subject to" the Act's permitting requirement "even if the pollutants subsequently migrate to jurisdictional surface waters," such as the ocean. Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 12 (capitalization omitted).

We agree that statutory context limits the reach of the statutory phrase "from any point source" to a range of circumstances narrower than that which the Ninth Circuit's interpretation suggests. At the same time, it is significantly broader than the total exclusion of all discharges through groundwater described by Maui and the Solicitor General.

III

Virtually all water, polluted or not, eventually makes its way to navigable water. This is just as true for groundwater. See generally 2 Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia 2600 (10th ed. 2008) (defining "Hydrology"). Given the power of modern science, the Ninth Circuit's limitation, "fairly traceable," may well allow EPA to assert permitting authority over the release of pollutants that reach navigable waters many years after their release (say, from a well or pipe or compost heap) and in highly diluted forms. See, e.g., Brief for Aquatic Scientists et al. as Amici Curiae 13–28.

The respondents suggest that the standard can be narrowed by adding a "proximate cause" requirement. That is, to fall within the permitting provision, the discharge from a point source must "proximately cause" the pollutants' eventual addition to navigable waters. But the term "proximate cause" derives from general tort law, and it takes on its specific content based primarily on "policy" considerations. See CSX Transp., Inc. v. McBride , 564 U.S. 685, 701, 131 S.Ct. 2630, 180 L.Ed.2d 637 (2011) (plurality opinion). In the context of water pollution, we do not see how it significantly narrows the statute beyond the words "fairly traceable" themselves.

Our view is that Congress did not intend the point source-permitting requirement to provide EPA with such broad authority as...