SCOTUS Water Ruling Doesn’t Change Long Island Parks Dispute

摘要

A lawsuit claiming the underground septic systems of Long Island parks are contributing to nitrogen pollution in nearby waters should proceed to trial despite an intervening U.S.Supreme Court ruling on the scope of the Clean Water Act, according to a recommendation from a federal magistrate judge in New York.More facts are needed to determine whether the Suffolk County, N.Y., septic systems violate the CWA by discharging pollutants into groundwater that ultimately reaches navigable waters,Magistrate Judge Steven I. Locke of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York said May 21. The Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in County of Maui v. Hawai’i Wildlife Fund, whichrecognized a new standard for CWA liability, doesn’t require Locke to deviate from his original recommendation that this claim advance to trial, he said.In Maui, the Supreme Court held that the CWA requires a permit when there is a direct discharge of pollutants from a point source into navigable waters, or when there is the “functionalequivalent” of a direct discharge. Although this functional equivalent standard is narrower than the “fairly traceable” standard that guided Locke’s original recommendation, “summaryjudgment remains inappropriate,” he said.