South Florida Water Management District v. Miccosukee Tribe Of Indians

541 U.S. 95 (2004)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

D operates a pumping facility that transfers water from a canal into a reservoir a short distance away. The Central and South Florida Flood Control Project (Project) consists of a vast array of levees, canals, pumps, and water impoundment areas in the land between South Florida's coastal hills and the Everglades. D began to build canals to drain the wetlands and make them suitable for cultivation. The canals lowered the water table, allowing saltwater to intrude upon coastal wells, and they proved incapable of controlling flooding. Congress established the Project in 1948 to address these problems. Canal C-11 collects groundwater and rainwater from a 104-square-mile area. At the western terminus of C-11 is a large pump station known as 'S-9.' S-9 pumps water out of the canal. The water does not travel far. Sixty feet away, the pump station empties the water into a large undeveloped wetland area called 'WCA-3.' WCA-3 is the largest of several 'water conservation areas' that are remnants of the original South Florida Everglades. The District impounds water in these areas to conserve fresh-water that might otherwise flow directly to the ocean and to preserve wetlands habitat. The District maintains the water table in WCA-3 at a level significantly higher than that in the developed lands drained by the C-11 canal. Rain on the eastern side of the levees falls on agricultural, urban, and residential land. Before it enters the C-11 canal, whether directly as surface runoff or indirectly as groundwater, that rainwater absorbs contaminants produced by human activities. The water in C-11, therefore, differs chemically from that in WCA-3. C-11 water contains elevated levels of phosphorous. When water from C-11 is pumped across the levees, the phosphorous it contains alters the balance of WCA-3's ecosystem (which is naturally low in phosphorous) and stimulates the growth of algae and plants foreign to the Everglades ecosystem. Ps brought this Clean Water Act suit to enjoin the operation of S-9 and, in turn, the conveyance of water from C-11 into WCA-3. Section 1342, establishes the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or 'NPDES.' The NPDES requires dischargers to obtain permits that place limits on the type and quantity of pollutants that can be released into the Nation's waters. The District Court granted summary judgment to P. It held that both they are two separate bodies of water because the transfer of water or its contents from C-11 into the Everglades would not occur naturally.' The Court of Appeals affirmed. It held that for an addition of pollutants to be from a point source, the relevant inquiry is whether--but for the point source--the pollutants would have been added to the receiving body of water. It concluded that an addition from a point source occurs if a point source is the cause in fact of the release of pollutants into navigable waters. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.