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This article discusses two legal disputes currently making their way through federal courts that address the question of whether congress intended the pollutant discharge permit requirements of the Clean Water Act (CWA) to apply to engineered conveyances of raw waters by drinking water suppliers. If the ruling is affirmative, the drinking water suppliers would be negatively impacted by the outcome. Central to the dispute is whetherCongress, as the US government hasargued, intended the CWA to consider thenavigable US waters it aims to restore tobe a single body of water that can bepolluted only by the initial "addition"from a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES)-regulated point-sourcedischarge into those waters. If so,transferring any amounts within thatcollective water body necessarily cannotamount to new additions of pollutantssubject again to NPDES permits. Ofparticular concern to water utilities is thefact that in both cases, courts havedistinguished between intrabasin andinterbasin transfers in considering theapplicability of NPDES permitrequirements, finding that NPDESrequirements can apply to interbasintransfers involving the discharge of waterfrom one basin into a separate one.

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Edition: Vol. 96 - No. 9 Published: 09/01/2004 Number of Pages: 11 File Size: 1 file , 120 KB