Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-260_jifl.pdf
Page Number: 8.0

4 

COUNTY OF MAUI v. HAWAII WILDLIFE FUND 

Opinion of the Court 

Maui petitioned for certiorari.  In light of the differences
in the standards adopted by the different Courts of Appeals, 
we granted the petition.  Compare, e.g., 886  F. 3d, at 749 
(“fairly traceable”), with Upstate Forever v. Kinder Morgan 
Energy Partners, L. P., 887 F. 3d 637, 651 (CA4 2018) (“di-
rect hydrological connection”), and Kentucky Waterways Al-
liance v. Kentucky Util. Co., 905 F. 3d 925, 932–938 (CA6
2018) (discharges through groundwater are excluded from
the Act’s permitting requirements). 

II 

The linguistic question here concerns the statutory word 
“from.”  Is  pollution  that  reaches  navigable  waters  only
through  groundwater  pollution  that  is  “from”  a  point
source, as the statute uses the word?  The word “from” is 
broad in scope, but context often imposes limitations.  “Fin-
land,” for example, is often not the right kind of answer to 
the question, “Where have you come from?” even if long ago 
you were born there.

The parties here disagree dramatically about the scope of 
the word “from” in the present context.  The environmental 
groups, the respondents, basically adopt the Ninth Circuit’s
view—that  the  permitting  requirement  applies  so  long  as
the pollutant is “fairly traceable” to a point source even if it
traveled  long  and  far  (through  groundwater)  before  it 
reached navigable waters.  They add that the release from
the point source must be “a proximate cause of the addition
of pollutants to navigable waters.”  Brief for Respondents
20. 

Maui, on the other hand, argues that the statute creates
a  “bright-line  test.”  Brief  for  Petitioner  27–28.    A  point
source or series of point sources must be “the means of de-
livering pollutants to navigable waters.”  Id., at 28.  They 
add that, if “at least one nonpoint source (e.g., unconfined 
rainwater runoff or groundwater)” lies “between the point