Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-260_jifl.pdf
Page Number: 45

12 

COUNTY OF MAUI v. HAWAII WILDLIFE FUND 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

the States have developed methods of regulating non-
point  source  pollution  through  water  quality  stand-
ards, and otherwise.”  Ibid. 
“The Act envisions EPA’s role in managing non[-]point 
source pollution and groundwater pollution as limited
to  studying  the  issue,  sharing  information  with  and
collecting  information  from  the  States,  and  issuing
monetary grants.”  Ante, at 7. 

Point  sources  are  readily  identifiable  and  therefore  more
susceptible  to  uniform  nationwide  regulation.  Non-point
source  pollution,  on  the  other  hand,  often  presents  more 
complicated issues that are better suited to individualized
local solutions.  See Shanty Town Assns. L. P. v. EPA, 843 
F. 2d  782,  791  (CA4  1988)  (“[T]he  control  of  non[-]point
source pollution was so dependent on such site-specific fac-
tors as topography, soil structure, rainfall, vegetation, and
land use that its uniform federal regulation was virtually 
impossible”);  Natural  Resources  Defense  Council  v.  EPA, 
915 F. 2d 1314, 1316 (CA9 1990) (“The Act focused on point 
source  polluters  presumably  because  they  could  be 
identified  and  regulated  more  easily  than  non[-]point
source polluters”); Brief for State of West Virginia et al. as 
Amici Curiae 14–18. 

Second, this bright-line rule is consistent with the Act’s
remedial scheme.  The Clean Water Act imposes a regime 
of  strict  liability,  §§1311,  1342,  1344,  backed  by  criminal 
penalties  and  steep  civil  fines,  §1319.    Thus,  “the  conse-
quences to landowners even for inadvertent violations can
be crushing.”  Army Corps of Engineers v. Hawkes Co., 578 
U. S. ___, ___ (2016) (Kennedy, J., concurring) (slip op., at
1).  The Act authorizes as much as $54,833 in fines per day 
(or more than $20 million per year), 40 CFR §19.4; 84 Fed.
Reg. 2059, and contains a 5-year statute of limitations, 28
U. S. C. §2462.  And the availability of citizen suits only ex-
acerbates the danger to ordinary landowners.  Even when