Ruling by the court, which has a Republican super majority, undermines the 1972 Clean Water Act

Summary

In a 5-4 decision, the US Supreme Court weakened the Clean Water Act by limiting the EPA’s authority to issue generic water quality standards.

The majority, led by Justice Alito, ruled that the EPA must impose specific pollutant limits instead of broad, “end result” requirements. The city of San Francisco prevailed, challenging the EPA’s narrative-based permits for sewage discharges.

Dissenters, led by Justice Barrett, argued the law authorizes stronger measures to protect water supplies.

The case marks the first significant Clean Water Act challenge since Chevron deference was overturned in 2024.

    • lolrightythen@lemmy.world
      44·
      2 days ago

      Its not as if this saves money. It just shifts the expense. Purified water treatment plants are going to have to compensate for increasingly contaminated source water. I’d wager this will negatively impact nitrification. Just pollution for no societal gain. Greed, I assume.

      Ugh. I think I’ve hit my limit for bad news today. Be well, all.

    • tal@lemmy.todayEnglish
      712·
      2 days ago

      You’re from the UK, yes? The issue here is combined sewers; these produce overflow during periods of heavy rainfall. They’re a characteristic of older cities. You guys in the UK, with older cities, have considerably more of these than does the US, especially the western US, which are mostly newer cities built after separate sewers became the norm.

      I don’t know how you’d measure public views on the matter.

      kagis

      These guys are UK-based and studying public opinion on the matter:

      https://www.jacobs.com/newsroom/thought-leadership/combined-sewer-overflows-uk-what-can-we-learn-other-countries

      In our review, we found that CSOs in the U.K. do receive a higher level of public attention and are more heavily scrutinized than in European Union (EU) countries, while the U.S. is further ahead in terms of public awareness and stakeholder involvement.

      • x4740N@lemm.ee
        21·
        17 hours ago

        Awww is baby whinging because the UK is better than sithole america