Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-260_jifl.pdf
Page Number: 17

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

13 

Opinion of the Court 

EPA’s new interpretation is also difficult to reconcile with 
the  statute’s  reference  to  “any  addition”  of  a  pollutant  to 
navigable waters.  Cf. Milwaukee, 451 U. S., at 318 (“Every
point source discharge is prohibited unless covered by a per-
mit” (footnote omitted)).  It is difficult to reconcile EPA’s in-
terpretation  with  the  statute’s  inclusion  of  “wells”  in  the 
definition of “point source,” for wells most ordinarily would 
discharge pollutants through groundwater.  And it is diffi-
cult  to  reconcile  EPA’s  interpretation  with  the  statutory
provisions  that  allow  EPA  to  delegate  its  permitting  au-
thority to a State only if the State (among other things) pro-
vides “ ‘adequate authority’ ” to “ ‘control the disposal of pol-
lutants  into  wells.’ ”    §402(b),  86  Stat.  881.   What  need 
would there be for such a proviso if the federal permitting
program the State replaces did not include such discharges 
(from wells through groundwater) in the first place? 

In short, EPA’s oblique argument about the statute’s ref-
erences  to  groundwater  cannot  overcome  the  statute’s
structure, its purposes, or the text of the provisions that ac-
tually govern. 

D 

Perhaps, as the two dissents suggest, the language could 
be narrowed to similar effect by reading the statute to refer 
only to the pollutant’s immediate origin.  See post, at 2–3 
(opinion of THOMAS, J.); post, at 8 (opinion of ALITO, J.).  But 
there  is  no  linguistic  basis  here  to  so  limit  the  statute  in 
that way.  Again, whether that is the correct reading turns 
on context.  JUSTICE THOMAS insists that in the case of a 
discharge  through  groundwater,  the  pollutants  are  added 
“from the groundwater.”  Post, at 2.  Indeed, but that does 
not  mean  they  are  not  also  “from  the  point  source.”  Ibid. 
When John comes to the hotel, John might have come from
the  train  station,  from  Baltimore,  from  Europe,  from  any 
two of those three places, or from all three.  A sign that asks
all persons who arrive from Baltimore to speak to the desk