LOC News
Supreme Court Opinion on Clean Water Act is a Win for Cities
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court in San Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency, ruled in favor of the city and county of San Francisco, holding that the 1972 Clean Water Act does not authorize the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to impose “end result” provisions in National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. “End result” requirements do not provide any specific limitations on permittees but instead focus on the resulting quality of water. The court held that the EPA must instead “determine[e] what steps a permittee must take to ensure that water quality standards are met.”
In Oregon, the EPA delegates its NPDES permitting authority to the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality. This decision impacts cities that operate wastewater and stormwater facilities. While it is unclear at this time how this will impact NPDES permitting generally, the LOC will continue to monitor this issue.
Contact: Michael Martin, Lobbyist - mmartin@orcities.org
Jayme Pierce, General Counsel - jpierce@orcities.org
Last Updated 3/7/25