Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-260_jifl.pdf
Page Number: 11.0

Cite as:  590 U. S. ____ (2020) 

7 

Opinion of the Court 

gable waters); id., at 10–11 (discussing regulations of vine-
yards  to  control  water  pollution);  id.  at  17–19  (discussing
livestock grazing management, including utilization ratios
and time restrictions); Nonpoint Source Management Pro-
gram,  Annual  Report  (Maine)  8–10  (2018)  (discussing  in-
stallation of livestock fencing and planting of vegetation to
reduce  nonpoint  source  pollution);  Oklahoma’s  Nonpoint
Source Management Program, Annual Report 5, 14 (2017) 
(discussing program to encourage voluntary no-till farming 
to reduce sediment pollution).

The  Act  envisions  EPA’s  role  in  managing  nonpoint 
source  pollution  and  groundwater  pollution  as  limited  to 
studying the issue, sharing information with and collecting 
information from the States, and issuing monetary grants.
See  §§105, 208,  86  Stat.  825,  839;  see  also  Water  Quality
Act  of  1987,  §316,  101  Stat.  52  (establishing  Nonpoint 
Source Management Programs).  Although the Act grants 
EPA specific authority to regulate certain point source pol-
lution  (it  can  also  delegate  some  of  this  authority  to  the
States acting under EPA supervision, see §402(b), 86 Stat.
880),  these  permitting  provisions  refer  to  “point  sources” 
and “navigable waters,” and say nothing at all about non-
point  source  regulation  or  groundwater  regulation.    We 
must doubt that Congress intended to give EPA the author-
ity to apply the word “from” in a way that could interfere as 
seriously with States’ traditional regulatory authority—au-
thority the Act preserves and promotes—as the Ninth Cir-
cuit’s “fairly traceable” test would. 

Third, those who look to legislative history to help inter-
pret  a  statute  will  find  that  this  Act’s  history  strongly
supports our conclusion that the permitting provision does not 
extend so far.  Fifty years ago, when Congress was consid-
ering the bills that became the Clean Water Act, William 
Ruckelshaus, the first EPA Administrator, asked Congress 
to grant EPA authority over “ground waters” to “assure that