Clean Water Act - Case Law

Case Law

• United States v. Riverside Bayview Homes, Inc. (1985). The Supreme Court upheld the Act's coverage in regulating wetlands that intermingle with navigable waters. This ruling was revised by the 2006 Rapanos decision.
• Edward Hanousek, Jr v. United States (9th Cir. Court of Appeals, 1996; certiorari denied, 2000). In 1994, during rock removal operations, a backhoe operator accidentally struck a petroleum pipeline near the railroad tracks. The operator’s mistake caused the pipeline to rupture and spill between 1,000 and 5,000 gallons of heating oil into the Skagway river. Despite not being present at the scene during operations White Pass and Yukon Route Roadmaster Edward Hanousek, Jr. and President Paul Taylor were both held responsible for the spill and convicted.
• Solid Waste Agency of North Cook County (SWANCC) v. United States Army Corps of Engineers (2001), possibly denying the CWA's hold in isolated intrastate waters and certainly denying the validity of the 1986 "Migratory Bird Rule."
• S. D. Warren Co. v. Maine Bd. of Env. Protection (2006). The Court ruled that section 401 state certification requirements apply to hydroelectric dams, which are federally licensed, where the dams cause a discharge into navigable waters.
• Rapanos v. United States (2006). The Supreme Court questioned federal jurisdiction as it attempted to define the Act's use of the terms "navigable waters" and "waters of the United States." The Court rejected the position of the USACE that its authority over water was essentially limitless. Though the case resulted in no binding case law, the Court suggested a narrowing of federal jurisdiction and implied the federal government needed a more substantial link between navigable federal waters and wetlands than it had been using, but held onto the "significant nexus" test.