Opinion ID: 3054096
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Heading: The Ruling in S.D. Warren

Text: The S. D. Warren Company (Company), which operates several hydroelectric power dams along the Presumpscot River in Maine, sought renewal of federal licenses for five of its dams. S.D. Warren, 547 U.S. at 374. Before receiving the requested license renewals, the Company was compelled to obtain water quality certifications from the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, which it did under protest. Id. at 374-75. The Maine agency required, as a condition of certification, that the Company maintain a minimum stream flow, and the federal licenses reflected those conditions. Id. at 375. The Company appealed the conditions placed on the licenses to the Maine state courts, contending that because its dams did not create or permit “discharges,” it was not required to obtain state certification under § 401. Id. The superior court ruled against the Company, and the Company appealed to the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, which affirmed. 868 A.2d 210 (Me. 2005). The United States Supreme Court then granted certiorari. 546 U.S. 933 (2005). The question presented in the petition for writ of certiorari was: “Does the mere flow of water through an existing dam constitute a ‘discharge’ under Section 401, 33 U.S.C. § 1341, of the Clean Water Act, despite this Court’s holding last year in [South Florida Water Management District v.] Miccosukee [Tribe of Indians, 541 U.S. 95 (2004),] that a discharge requires the addition of water from a distinct body of water?” Petition for Writ of Certiorari, S.D. Warren, 547 U.S. 370 (No. 04-1527). [2] Before the Supreme Court, the Company argued that “because the release of water from the dams adds nothing to 16306 OREGON NATURAL DESERT v. USFS the river that was not there above the dams,” there was no “discharge” within the meaning of § 401. Id. at 379. In other words, because the Company was not adding anything to the water as it moved through its turbines, it could not be said to be discharging into the Presumpscot River. The Supreme Court rejected the notion that “an addition is fundamental to any discharge,” and affirmed the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine on the ground that a “discharge” means a “flowing or issuing out,” and does not require any addition to the water as it leaves the dam. Id. at 377. In sum, the United States Supreme Court held that the term “discharge” is not limited to the “discharge of a pollutant,” but may also include the “flowing or issuing out” of non-pollutants, or even water. [3] The parties to this action agree that S.D. Warren is not precisely on point. In S.D. Warren, no one questioned whether a “point source” existed for the purpose of determining whether a “discharge” had occurred. The movement of water at issue in S.D. Warren was achieved by each dam creating a pond and running the water through turbines back into the waterbed. These turbines are undeniably point sources under the CWA definition. See CWA § 502(14). Indeed, the Company contended on appeal, and the State of Maine did not disagree, that it was “undisputed that 401 does not cover nonpoint source . . . pollution.” Transcript of Oral Argument at 5, S.D. Warren, 547 U.S. 370 (No. 04-1527). The issue in S.D. Warren was narrowly tailored to determine whether a discharge from a point source could occur absent addition of any pollutant to the water emitted from the dam turbines.4 4 ONDA argues that we should not read S.D. Warren to pertain only to point sources because neither the Supreme Court nor this court has unequivocally held that a dam is a point source. ONDA also notes that § 304(f) of the CWA includes “changes caused by the construction of dams” under the classification of “nonpoint sources of pollution.” 33 U.S.C. § 1314(f). Other circuits have linked dams to nonpoint sources of pollution. The Sixth Circuit has recognized that the “EPA has consistently treated dams OREGON NATURAL DESERT v. USFS 16307 [4] ONDA urges us to read S.D. Warren as expanding the meaning of “discharge” in § 401 to include discharge from nonpoint sources. However, the holding in S.D. Warren is limited to the conclusion that a discharge need not involve pollutants, hence the expulsion of water from a dam turbine is a discharge. Not only does S.D. Warren fail to address the issue of nonpoint source pollution, it confirms our conclusion in Dombeck that “ ‘[d]ischarge’ is the broader term because it includes all releases from point sources, whether polluting or nonpolluting.” 172 F.3d at 1098.