page_title: Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc.
section_title: South Florida Water Management District v. Miccosukee Tribe of Indians
hierarchical_section_title: Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. / Prior cases / District court opinion / South Florida Water Management District v. Miccosukee Tribe of Indians
caption_attribution_description: Map of the w:Everglades area.
context_page_description: Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 568 U.S. 78, is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Natural Resources Defense Council and Santa Monica Baykeeper challenged the Los Angeles County Flood Control District for violating the terms of its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit as shown in water quality measurements from monitoring stations within the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers. The Supreme Court, by a unanimous 9-0 vote, reversed and remanded the Ninth Circuit's ruling on the grounds that the flow of water from an improved portion of a navigable waterway into an unimproved portion of the same waterway does not qualify as a "discharge of a pollutant" under the Clean Water Act.
context_section_description: In this 2004 U.S. Supreme Court case, the Miccosukee Tribe challenged the South Florida Water Management District on an issue related to the operation of a new pump station that transferred water from a concrete canal to a large undeveloped wetland area as part of the Central and South Florida Flood Control Project. During rain events, stormwater collected in the canal contained contaminants such as phosphorus and fertilizers from agricultural and urban land uses. The district impounded water in the wetland area, a remnant of the original South Florida Everglades, to conserve fresh water that might otherwise flow directly to the ocean and to preserve wetland habitat. When water levels in the canal rose above a set level, the pump would transfer water out of the canal and empty the water in the canal. In doing so, the phosphorus-containing the water altered the wetland's ecosystem, which was naturally low in phosphorus, and stimulated the growth of algae and plants that were uncommon in the Everglades ecosystem.
  The Miccosukee Tribe filed suit under the Clean Water Act, which prohibits "the discharge of any pollutant by any person" unless done in compliance with the Act. The Tribe claimed that the pump station required an NPDES permit, because it moved phosphorus-laden water from the canal into the wetland area, but the district contended that the pump's operation did not constitute the "discharge of a pollutant" under the Act. The district court granted the Tribe summary judgment, and the Eleventh Circuit affirmed. For the purposes of NPDES permitting requirements, the Government (as an impartial adviser to the district) contended that all water bodies that fall within the Act's definition of "navigable water" (which are defined as "the waters of the U.S.") should be viewed collectively. Since the Act requires NPDES permits only when there is an addition of a pollutant to "navigable waters," this approach implied that such permits are not required when water is transferred from one navigable water, unaltered, into another navigable water body. However, because neither the district nor the Government raised the "unitary waters" approach before the Eleventh Circuit or in their briefs respecting certiori and because some factual issues remained unresolved, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to resolve the unitary waters argument and the case was remanded to the lower court.
caption: Southern third of the Florida Peninsula, showing the area managed by the South Florida Water Management District
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