In A First, Judge Requires CWA Permit Using High Court Groundwater Ruling

摘要

A federal judge is requiring a Hawaii county's treatment plant to obtain a Clean Water Act (CWA) permit to govern discharge of treated wastewater into its injection wells that then makes its way to the Pacific Ocean, a first-time application of the Supreme Court's landmark test on when pollutants that travel through groundwater require a permit. "The discharge from the County's injection wells into the groundwater and ultimately into the ocean is the functional equivalent of a direct discharge such that it triggers the [National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)] permit requirement," Judge Susan Oki Mollway of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii wrote in a July 15 ruling in Hawai'i Wildlife Fund, et al, v. County of Maui.