Supreme Court limits EPA's power over wastewater permits
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on March 4, 2025, that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) cannot enforce requirements in wastewater permits that don’t specify what a permittee can or can't do.
San Francisco v. EPA resulted in a 5-4 decision resolving a years-long dispute between San Francisco and the EPA.
In 2019 the EPA approved San Francisco’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit for the city’s Oceanside combined sewer system and wastewater treatment facility.
San Francisco challenged the EPA’s attempts to fine the city for allegedly violating its NPDES permit for the wastewater treatment facility, which releases stormwater and sewage during rain events.
According to a Georgetown Environmental Law Review article, San Francisco requested judicial review of requirements within the NPDES permit, arguing that the EPA exceeded the authority granted to it by the Clean Water Act (CWA).
The city argued that the language in the permit was not specific which allows the EPA to impose specific limitations on discharged pollutants – not holding individual permitholders responsible for the quality of water into which pollutants are discharged.
The ruling will mean that the EPA and state regulators will need to be more specific when issuing permits.
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The article referenced in this story originally ran as Supreme Court rules in favor of San Francisco in EPA NPDES permit case on Stormwater Solutions, an Endeavor Business Media partner site.