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Page Number: 27.0

2 

COUNTY OF MAUI v. HAWAII WILDLIFE FUND 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

I 
A 

In interpreting the statutory definition of “discharge,” the 
Court focuses on the word “from,” but the most helpful word
is  “addition.”  That  word,  together  with  “to”  and  “from,” 
limits  the  meaning  of  “discharge”  to  the  augmentation  of 
navigable waters.
  Dictionary definitions of “addition” denote an augmenta-
tion  or  increase.  Webster’s  Third  New  International  Dic-
tionary defines “addition” as “the act or process of adding:
the joining or uniting of one thing to another.”  Webster’s 
Third New International Dictionary 24 (1961); see also ibid. 
(listing “increase” and “augmentation” as synonyms for “ad-
dition”).  Other dictionary definitions from around the time 
of the statute’s enactment are in accord.  See, e.g., American 
Heritage  Dictionary  14,  15  (1981)  (defining  “addition”  as 
“[t]he act or process of adding” and defining “add” as “[t]o 
join or unite so as to increase in size, quantity, or scope”);
see also Webster’s New International Dictionary 29, 30 (2d 
ed.  1957)  (defining  “addition”  as  the  “[a]ct,  process,  or  in-
stance of adding,” and defining “add” as to “join or unite, as 
one thing to another, or as several particulars, so as to in-
crease the number, augment the quantity, enlarge the mag-
nitude, or so as to form into one aggregate”). 

The inclusion of the term “addition” in the CWA indicates 
that the statute excludes anything other than a direct dis-
charge.  When a point source releases pollutants to ground-
water, one would naturally say that the groundwater has
been augmented with pollutants from the point source.  If 
the  pollutants  eventually  reach  navigable  waters,  one
would  not  naturally  say  that  the  navigable  waters  have
been augmented with pollutants from the point source.  The 
augmentation  instead  occurs  with  pollutants  from  the 
groundwater. 

The  prepositions  “from”  and  “to”  reinforce  this  reading.
When pollutants are released from a point source to another