San Francisco v. EPA: Impact On Clean Water Act Permittees

I. Introduction

On Tuesday, March 4, the United States Supreme Court issued a major decision limiting the scope of the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) authority under the Clean Water Act (CWA) as relates to permits governing discharges by industry and municipalities into covered water bodies.

Specifically, the 5-4 ruling in City and County of San Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency held that EPA cannot enforce permit provisions that "make a permittee responsible for the quality of the water in the body of water into which the permittee discharges pollutants." No. 23-753, 2025 WL 676441, at *3 (U.S. Mar. 4, 2025). The Court ruled that under the CWA EPA cannot impose on discharging facilities the responsibility of achieving water quality results ("end-result" criteria) without providing specific direction on what permit holders can and cannot do, such as by imposing limits on each specific pollutant released by a facility. See id.