Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/18-260_jifl.pdf
Page Number: 31

6 

COUNTY OF MAUI v. HAWAII WILDLIFE FUND 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

stances.  It poses the examples of a pipe that releases pol-
lutants over navigable waters and a pipe that releases pol-
lutants onto land near navigable waters.  As an initial mat-
ter, I am not as sure as the majority that a “pollutant,” as
defined by the CWA, may be added to the air.3  Even if the 
majority  is  correct  that  a  permit  is  not  required  in  these 
hypothetical cases, drawing the line at discharges to water
is not so absurd as to undermine the most natural reading 
of  the  statute.  In  any  event,  it  is  unnecessary  to  decide 
these hypothetical cases today.

Finally, the Court speculates as to “those circumstances
in  which  Congress  intended  to  require  a  federal  permit.” 
Ante,  at  15.   But  we  are  not  a  superlegislature  (or  super-
EPA)  tasked  with  making  good  policy—assuming  that  is 
even what the Court accomplishes today.  “Our job is to fol-
low  the  text  even  if  doing  so  will  supposedly  undercut  a 
basic  objective  of  the  statute.”  Baker  Botts  L.  L.  P.  v. 
ASARCO  LLC,  576  U. S.  121,  135  (2015)  (internal  quota-
tion marks omitted). 

II 

I  do  agree  with  the  Court  on  several  points.    First,  the 
interpretation adopted by respondents and the Ninth Cir-
cuit  is  unsupportable.  That  interpretation—which  would
require permits for discharges that are “ ‘fairly traceable’ ” 
to, and proximately caused by, a point source—is atextual
and  unsettles  the  CWA’s  careful  balance  between  federal 
regulation of point-source pollution and state regulation of 
nonpoint-source pollution.  Ante, at 5–9. 

—————— 

3 The CWA defines a “pollutant” as “dredged spoil, solid waste, incin-
erator  residue,  sewage,  garbage,  sewage  sludge,  munitions,  chemical 
wastes, biological materials, radioactive materials, heat, wrecked or dis-
carded equipment, rock, sand, cellar dirt and industrial, municipal, and
agricultural  waste  discharged  into  water,”  with  certain  exceptions. 
§1362(6).