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Courts Consider Need of NPDES Permits for Conveying Raw Waters
Author(s) -
Scharfenaker Mark
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
journal ‐ american water works association
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.466
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1551-8833
pISSN - 0003-150X
DOI - 10.1002/j.1551-8833.2004.tb10692.x
Subject(s) - clean water act , pollutant , water body , united states regulation of point source water pollution , environmental science , water resource management , water discharge , raw water , business , environmental planning , nonpoint source pollution , water quality , environmental engineering , engineering , ecology , geotechnical engineering , biology
This article discusses two legal disputes currently making their way through federal courts that address the question of whether Congress intended for the pollutant discharge permit requirements of the Clean Water Act (CWA) to apply to engineered conveyances of raw waters by drinking water suppliers. Central to the dispute is whether Congress intended the CWA to consider the navigable US waters it aims to restore to be a single body of water that can be polluted only by the initial “addition” from a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)‐regulated point‐source discharge into those waters. If so, transferring any amounts within that collective water body necessarily cannot amount to new additions of pollutants subject again to NPDES permits. Of particular concern to water utilities is the fact that in both cases, courts have distinguished between intrabasin and interbasin transfers in considering the applicability of NPDES permit requirements, finding that NPDES requirements can apply to interbasin transfers involving the discharge of water from one basin into a separate one.