Early Tea Leaves for Interpreting the Supreme Court’s Maui Decision?

On April 23, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled in Maui v. Hawai’i Wildlife Fund that pollutants that are discharged from a point source into groundwater, and end up reaching downgradient navigable waters, may be treated as the “functional equivalent” of a direct discharge into that water of the U.S. The Court held that Clean Water Act authorized National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits are mandated for certain point source discharges through groundwater to surface water and left it to the lower courts to assess whether that “functional equivalent” test is met in specific cases. My colleagues have reported on the “functional equivalent” set out in Maui.