Supreme Court justices on Oct. 16 heard arguments in a challenge to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) wastewater discharge permitting system, which San Francisco claims violates federal law.
The city and county of San Francisco argue in the appeal that the EPA’s “vague” limitations on how much pollution may be present in wastewater discharged by water utilities is arbitrary and unfair.
The EPA grants permits to local governments and water management authorities under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), with the aim of limiting the amount of pollution flowing from “point sources” into bodies of water.
The agency defines a point source as “any single identifiable source of pollution from which pollutants are discharged, such as a pipe, ditch, ship or factory smokestack.”…