FEATURE ARTICLE

January 2006

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Welcome to the Supreme Court: Chief Justice Roberts Will Address the Scope of the Clean Water Act in Two Wetlands Cases

In 1972, in response to surreal environmental horrors like the burning Cuyahoga River in June of 1969, the United States Congress passed the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972 (WPCA), 33 U.S.C. § 1251, et seq. See, Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, 531 U.S. 159 (2001) (Stevens, J., dissenting). The act, as substantially amended in 1977, is popularly known as the Clean Water Act (CWA). The passage of the CWA, by large margins on both sides of the aisle, marked a turning point in the environmental history of the United States. (The CWA was approved unanimously by the Senate, with only 11 votes against in the House. President Nixon vetoed the CWA, but Congress immediately overrode the veto.) Prior to the CWA, pollutants were routinely dumped into the nation’s waterways, with no accounting for the human or economic cost. As a result, many lakes, rivers, and streams in this country were no longer usable for swimming, recreation or fishing.