EPA Asks Court to Maintain Expansive Federal Waters Protections

The US Supreme Court should uphold Clean Water Act protections for wetlands that aren’t directly connected to large bodies of water, the EPA argued in a brief filed Friday in a case that will determine the extent of the federal government’s power over wetlands nationwide.

Clean Water Act protection should be so expansive that the law should protect even artificial tributaries such as ditches, the Environmental Protection Agency argued in its brief.

In Sackett v. EPA , the EPA is asking the court to affirm a US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruling upholding then-Justice Anthony Kennedy’s ...