Supreme Court limits EPA authority to protect wetlands

WASHINGTON —on Thursday sharply limited the federal government’s authority to police water pollution into certain wetlands, the second decision in as many years in which a conservative majority narrowed the reach of environmental regulations.

The court jettisoned the 17-year-old opinion by their former colleague, Anthony Kennedy, allowing regulation of what can be discharged into wetlands that could affect the health of the larger waterways. The cornerstone California law is the Porter Cologne Act, signed in 1969 by then Gov. Ronald Reagan, which gives broad powers to the State Water Resources Control Board to regulate water issues. That law, passed by a bi-partisan vote in Sacramento, in part inspired Congress to pass the landmark Clean Water Act.

Environmental groups said they nevertheless have concerns that some water bodies, including seasonal streams that flow into San Francisco Bay or the Delta, might have protections weakened due to Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling. The outcome almost certainly will affect ongoing court battles over new wetlands regulations that the Biden administration put in place in December. Two federal judges have temporarily blocked those rules from being enforced in 26 states.

But only five justices joined in the opinion that imposed a new test for evaluating when wetlands are covered by the Clean Water Act. Chief Justice John Roberts, Justice Clarence Thomas and Alito would have adopted the narrower standard in 2006, in the last big wetlands case at the Supreme Court. They were joined Thursday by Justices Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett.

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