Clean Water Act Coverage of “Discharges of Pollutants” via a Direct Hydrologic Connection to Surface Water

Letters
May 21, 2018

We, the undersigned organizations (collectively, the Associations), understand the importance of responsibly managing water resources and have been working to protect clean water for decades.  Consequently, we submit these comments to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA or Agency) in consideration of its recent request for comment as to whether the Agency should revise its previous statements regarding whether releases that reach jurisdictional surface waters via groundwater or some other subsurface flow should be subject to regulation under the Clean Water Act (CWA or Act).1  For the reasons set forth below, we believe it is critically important that EPA engage in notice-and-comment rulemaking to clarify that the CWA does not regulate discharges that reach surface waters via groundwater...