EPA's Most Recent Draft NPDES General Permit Could Earn It Another Trip To The Supreme Court

Sam Hess of Inside EPA  and many others are writing about EPA's Halloween Trick or Treat – the publication of a draft Clean Water Act NPDES General Permit that would apply to “commercial, industrial and institutional” properties with one acre  or more of impervious surface in 65 cities and towns in the Massachusetts Charles, Neponset and Mystic River watersheds.

This permit is a “treat” for the NGOs that have twice sued EPA to cause it to take this action. And there can be no doubt that compliance with the permit by the hundreds, if not thousands, of property owners that would be subject to it will dramatically improve water quality in these three rivers. But that doesn't mean that our current Supreme Court would agree that the permit is authorized by the Federal Clean Water Act.