Pud No. 1 of Jefferson County and City of Tacoma v. Washington Department of Ecology, et al. (511 U.S. 700)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 31, 1994 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 511 U.S. 700 · 114 S. Ct. 1900
- Decided
- May 31, 1994
- Term
- October Term 1993
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice O'Connor
- Issue area
- Economic Activity
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice O’Connor delivered the opinion of the Court. Petitioners, a city and a local utility district, want to build a hydroelectric project on the Dosewallips River in Washington State. We must decide whether respondent state environmental agency (hereinafter respondent) properly conditioned a permit for the project on the maintenance of specific minimum stream flows to protect salmon and steelhead runs. I This case involves the complex statutory and regulatory scheme that governs our Nation’s waters, a scheme that implicates both federal and state administrative responsibilities. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act, commonly known as the Clean Water Act, 86 Stat. 816, as amended, 33 U. S. C. § 1251 et seq., is a comprehensive water quality statute designed to “restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters.” § 1251(a). The Act also seeks to attain “water quality which provides for the protection and propagation of fish, shellfish, and wildlife.” § 1251(a)(2). To achieve these ambitious goals, the Clean Water Act establishes distinct roles for the Federal and State Governments. Under the Act, the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is required, among other things, to establish and enforce technology-based limitations on individual discharges into the country’s navigable waters from point sources. See…
Excerpt of a 40,113-character opinion. The full text and citation network load in the interactive viewer above.