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2 

COUNTY OF MAUI v. HAWAII WILDLIFE FUND 

Opinion of the Court 

I 
A 
Congress’  purpose  as  reflected  in  the  language  of  the
Clean Water Act is to “ ‘restore and maintain the . . . integ-
rity of the Nation’s waters,’ ” §101(a), 86 Stat. 816.  Prior to 
the  Act,  Federal  and  State  Governments  regulated  water
pollution in large part by setting water quality standards. 
See EPA v. California ex rel. State Water Resources Control 
Bd., 426 U. S. 200, 202–203 (1976).  The Act restructures 
federal regulation by insisting that a person wishing to dis-
charge  any  pollution  into  navigable  waters  first  obtain
EPA’s permission to do so.  See id., at 203–205; Milwaukee 
v. Illinois, 451 U. S. 304, 310–311 (1981). 

The Act’s provisions use specific definitional language to
achieve  this  result.  First,  the  Act  defines  “pollutant”
broadly, including in its definition, for example, any solid
waste,  incinerator  residue,  “ ‘heat,’ ”  “ ‘discarded  equip-
ment,’ ”  or  sand  (among  many  other  things).    §502(6),  86 
Stat. 886.  Second, the Act defines a “point source” as “ ‘any 
discernible,  confined  and  discrete  conveyance  . . .  from 
which pollutants are or may be discharged,’ ” including, for
example,  any  “ ‘container,’ ”  “ ‘pipe,  ditch,  channel,  tunnel, 
conduit,’ ” or “ ‘well.’ ”  §502(14), id., at 887.  Third, it defines 
the term “discharge of a pollutant” as “ ‘any addition of any 
pollutant to navigable waters [including navigable streams,
rivers, the ocean, or coastal waters] from any point source.’ ”  
§502(12), id., at 886. 

The Act then sets forth a statutory provision that, using 
these  terms,  broadly  states  that  (with  certain  exceptions) 
“ ‘the discharge of any pollutant by any person’ ” without an
appropriate permit “ ‘shall be unlawful.’ ”  §301, id., at 844. 
The question here, as we have said, is whether, or how, this
statutory language applies to a pollutant that reaches nav-
igable waters only after it leaves a “point source” and then
travels through groundwater before reaching navigable wa-
ters.  In such an instance, has there been a “discharge of a