613

Summary

In a 5-4 decision, the US Supreme Court weakened the Clean Water Act by limiting the EPA's authority to issue generic water quality standards.

The majority, led by Justice Alito, ruled that the EPA must impose specific pollutant limits instead of broad, "end result" requirements. The city of San Francisco prevailed, challenging the EPA's narrative-based permits for sewage discharges.

Dissenters, led by Justice Barrett, argued the law authorizes stronger measures to protect water supplies.

The case marks the first significant Clean Water Act challenge since Chevron deference was overturned in 2024.

top 48 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] WrenFeathers@lemmy.world 3 points 17 hours ago

This cornucopia of corruption is unprecedented. It seems we’re seeing all of his buyers receiving their benefits in real time.

[-] TheProtagonist@lemmy.world 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)
[-] Makhno@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago

This is a completely separate issue...?

[-] meowmeowbeanz@sopuli.xyz 3 points 19 hours ago

A 5-4 decision that weakens water protections is a win for polluters, not the public.

🐱

[-] jaggedrobotpubes@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

It's not a win for the polluters. They're polluting their own water.

"Public" means everybody, it's not the other team that goes with "private". It's everybody.

[-] meowmeowbeanz@sopuli.xyz 1 points 17 hours ago

Nice try, but polluters don’t see 'everybody'—just dollar signs and disposable ecosystems.

🐱🐱

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago

Yes California has one Sewage Crisis. But what about Second Sewage Crisis?

[-] FundMECFSResearch 3 points 20 hours ago

Its ridiculous when the courts are so clearly partisan. What is the point of the justice system anymore?

[-] fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com 11 points 1 day ago

The EPA 100% has a spreadsheet showing which pollutants lead up to those "end results". Hopefully a swath of specific limitations comes out very, very, quickly.

[-] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 day ago

I thought San Francisco were supposed to be good guys? Why are they pulling the EPA in front of the Supreme Court? Just to save some money on their infrastructure at the cost of the public?

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 4 points 19 hours ago

San Francisco has been shifting conservative for a while. A bunch of tech millionaires want to turn it into a futuristic dystopia.

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 4 points 20 hours ago

The city government of San Francisco is fucking broke because they built their entire budget and town around shitty tech startup open offices and nobody ever wanted that so now it all sits empty and decaying.

[-] skuzz@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 19 hours ago

Should have seen what they did to their homeless as soon as they were legally allowed to. When you travel far enough, extreme Left and Right both seem to be looping around and into the anus of Authoritarianism.

[-] bitjunkie@lemmy.world 2 points 18 hours ago

Implying that "extreme left" in any way applies to establishment Democrats.

[-] teft@lemmy.world 154 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Shithole country. Literally.

[-] lolrightythen@lemmy.world 43 points 1 day ago

Its not as if this saves money. It just shifts the expense. Purified water treatment plants are going to have to compensate for increasingly contaminated source water. I'd wager this will negatively impact nitrification. Just pollution for no societal gain. Greed, I assume.

Ugh. I think I've hit my limit for bad news today. Be well, all.

[-] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 75 points 1 day ago
[-] Mog_fanatic@lemmy.world 10 points 1 day ago

FINALLY! God it feels like I've been saying it forever but OUR WATER IS TOO CLEAN! Cannot tell you how much I miss sewage and dead animals in my water. Puts hair on your chest! Kids these days barely know what it's like to get a little cholera or typhoid. By the time I was six I had e coli twice, and salmonella. Wouldn't trade it for the world. MAGA!!

Maybe they'll have the best dysentery? That's not nothin.

[-] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago

Ask the Californian prison slaves

[-] cheers_queers@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

there's prison slavery happening all over the country. "fun" fact, school districts are encouraged to purchase furniture made by incarcerated people, and can even hire them to do maintenance type jobs (like painting etc).

shit is already fucked.

[-] venotic@kbin.melroy.org 41 points 1 day ago

Let's bring back lead paint.

Let's bring back coal refineries in full swing.

Let's bring back rulings against having warning labels.

Let's just go all the fucking way in how we can truly bastardize this country even further.

[-] TheProtagonist@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Don't forget good old asbestos!

[-] CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago

Something something "drain the swamp".

The joke about Republicans letting the likes of Bronzo the Clown take a shit in their mouth if they thought a liberal would have to smell it now became very close to literally true.

"Not having to eat actual shit from our water supply is just a lot of woke bullshit!" -magamorons, probably

[-] FooBarrington@lemmy.world 4 points 1 day ago

Why don't we just drain the swamp right into the drinking water supplies of schools? It's a win-win-win!

[-] crusa187@lemmy.ml 29 points 1 day ago

Great, so now asshole industrialists can pollute with whatever new-fangled chemicals they want, and if it’s not on the blacklist (good luck navigating the red tape to add to that list btw), they are free of liability and the public can get sick. Wonderful.

[-] Maggoty@lemmy.world 2 points 19 hours ago

Oh look we changed the formula for Horrible Death Liquid ^tm^ by one molocule. Anyways we'll just throw that in the reservoir behind the elementary school, what could go wrong?

[-] Eddbopkins@lemmy.world 21 points 1 day ago

This decision doesn't sound like its in the best interest of the people. And no corporations are not people. This can only end badly.

[-] aeternum 3 points 1 day ago

what makes you think drumpf gives a fuck?

[-] aseriesoftubes@lemmy.world 27 points 1 day ago

Mmm, this Freedom Water tastes amazing

[-] reddig33@lemmy.world 11 points 1 day ago
[-] WhatSay@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 day ago

It's what plants crave ⚡

[-] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

ruled that the EPA must impose specific pollutant limits instead of broad, “end result” requirements.

Any scientists out there who can talk to the specifics of this?

To a layman like me, this seems like six and a half of one, a half a dozen of another.

Is asking for specificity a bad thing, scientifically and environmentally speaking?

~This~ ~comment~ ~is~ ~licensed~ ~under~ ~CC~ ~BY-NC-SA~ ~4.0~

[-] mrbeano@lemm.ee 31 points 1 day ago

In a 5-4 ruling written by Justice Samuel Alito, the court blocked the EPA from issuing permits that make a permittee responsible for surface water quality, or “end result” permits – a new term coined by the court.

I also don't know, but get really suspicious if Alito needs to invent a "new term" to frame the case with

[-] CosmicCleric@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

I also don’t know, but get really suspicious if Alito needs to invent a “new term” to frame the case with

Yeah, there's definitely a " 'WTF?' Factor" going on with that.

I can't wait to hear what the Legal Eagle on YouTube says about that.

~This~ ~comment~ ~is~ ~licensed~ ~under~ ~CC~ ~BY-NC-SA~ ~4.0~

[-] evasive_chimpanzee@lemmy.world 23 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I haven't read the exact statutes, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Some compounds, like phosphates and nitrates, are well studied, and so experts can put limits in place that they know will result in good outcomes. Unfortunately, there are an infinite number of potential contaminates someone could dump into a body of water, so for anything less well studied, it's really hard to make limits. The EPA apparently just set a backstop that said something along the lines of "whatever you put in the water has to still result in good water quality".

Now that the Supreme Court has shut that down, a polluter can put anything in the water that isn't specifically disallowed. For a (fake) example, maybe Forever Chemical x2357-A is shown to hurt wildlife at concentrations over 2 parts per billion (after lots of expensive, taxpayer funded research), so the EPA rules that they have to keep it below 2 ppb. The company could adjust their process so their waste is Forever Chemical x2357-B instead, and they can release as much as they want.

The EPA basically just gets forced to play whack-a-mole spending lots of money to come up with specific rules to the point that they can't actually do their jobs.

[-] culprit@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 day ago

From a legal perspective I think it means that the permits are only able to set pre-requisite limits, but any end result can not be used to revoke it. Basically a CYA permit that allows the permitted entity to have oopsies as the end result that do not invalidate the permit. That's my poorly informed take on the legalese.

[-] conditional_soup@lemm.ee 13 points 1 day ago

Will getting cholera make eggs affordable?

[-] T00l_shed@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

More deaths, less consumers?

[-] rockerface@lemm.ee 3 points 1 day ago

I guess the invisible hand of the market belongs to Death

[-] fleton@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

Entering Flavor Country

[-] WhatSay@slrpnk.net 6 points 1 day ago

Thanks, I hate this.

[-] ImperialATAT@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

That’s shitty.

[-] ABetterTomorrow@lemm.ee 4 points 1 day ago

Time to start clogging the pipes

[-] griff@lemmings.world 7 points 1 day ago

Filthy water strengthens the white nation!

[-] MisanthropiCynic@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

Not like it was enforced anyway. The last time they did anything about it here, everyone’s water rates just skyrocketed

[-] aeternum 2 points 1 day ago

yup. drumpf is good at bringing the price of stuff down. Oh wait!

this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2025
613 points (100.0% liked)

News

25742 readers
4688 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil


Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.


2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.


Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.


3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.


Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.


4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.


Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.


5. Only recent news is allowed.


Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.


6. All posts must be news articles.


No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.


7. No duplicate posts.


If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.


8. Misinformation is prohibited.


Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.


9. No link shorteners.


The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.


10. Don't copy entire article in your post body


For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS