Following a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision involving the Clean Water Act, Carlton Fields environmental lawyer Neal McAliley offered his insights in a Bloomberg Law Environment and Energy Report article. The court ruled that water pollution that takes an indirect route to a federally regulated waterway would need to be permitted under the Clean Water Act when it is the “functional equivalent” of a direct discharge.
“[T]he mere fact that a discharge travels from a facility to the navigable waters in part through groundwater is no longer a complete defense,” McAliley told the publication.
READ: Bloomberg Law Environment and Energy Report, “Environmentalists Eye Power Plants After Supreme Court Ruling”