The U.S. Supreme Court has stripped federal agencies of authority over millions of acres of wetlands, weakening a bedrock environmental law enacted a half-century ago to cleanse the country’s badly polluted waters.
FILE - A road bisects a wetland on June 20, 2019, near Kulm, N.D. The Supreme Court has made it harder for the federal government to police water pollution. The decision from the court on Thursday, May 25, 2023, strips protections from wetlands that are isolated from larger bodies of water. Its the second ruling in as many years in which a conservative majority has narrowed the reach of environmental regulations.
The high court's decision follows one in 2022 curtailing federal power to reduce carbon emissions from power plants and indicates a willingness by the court’s emboldened conservatives to limit environmental laws and agency powers. While all nine justices agreed the Sacketts' property was not covered by the law, they disagreed over the definition of “waters of the United States" and which wetlands it includes.
Justice Elena Kagan, one of three liberals on the court, said the majority rewrote the law to reach the political decision it wanted by coming up with new ways to curtail environmental protection powers Congress gave the Environmental Protection Agency. Even after the latest court ruling, some experts said ambiguities remain – and likely will persist as the EPA and the Army Corps of Engineers craft yet more regulations tailored to the court’s edicts.
The ruling will have a big impact in the arid Southwest, where some rivers and streams dry up between infrequent rainstorms, experts said. The court majority said the Clean Water Act protects only wetlands connected to rivers and streams that are “relatively permanent” or “continuous.” “Everybody involved in enforcement actions … is going to hit the pause button on negotiations with agencies right now and question with their consultants whether under this decision there is a reason to even be talking with the government,” he said.
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