S. D. Warren Co. v. Maine Board of Environmental Protection

S. D. Warren Co. v. Maine Board of Environmental Protection
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 21, 2006 Decided May 15, 2006
Full case name	S. D. Warren Co. v. Maine Board of Environmental Protection, et al.
Citations	547 U.S. 370 (more) 126 S. Ct. 1843; 164 L. Ed. 2d 625; 2006 U.S. LEXIS 3955; 74 U.S.L.W. 4244
Case history
Prior	Board decision affirmed, 2004 Me. Super. LEXIS 115 (Me. Super. Ct. May 4, 2004); affirmed, 868 A.2d 210 (Me. 2005); cert. granted, 126 S. Ct. 415 (2005)
Holding
Because the outflow of water from a hydroelectric dam constitutes a "discharge" into navigable waters, it is subject to the Clean Water Act's requirement of state certification. Maine Supreme Judicial Court affirmed.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices John P. Stevens · Antonin Scalia Anthony Kennedy · David Souter Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg Stephen Breyer · Samuel Alito
Case opinion
Majority	Souter, joined by Roberts, Stevens, Kennedy, Thomas, Ginsburg, Breyer, Alito; Scalia (all but Part III–C)
Laws applied
33 U.S.C. § 1341 (Clean Water Act § 401)

S. D. Warren Co. v. Maine Board of Environmental Protection, 547 U.S. 370 (2006), was a case decided by the Supreme Court of the United States involving licensing requirements under the Clean Water Act. The Court ruled unanimously that hydroelectric dams were subject to section 401 of the Act, which conditioned federal licensing for a licensed activity that could result in "any discharge" into navigable waters upon the receipt of a state certification that water protection laws would not be violated. The Court believed that since the Act did not define the word "discharge" it should be given its ordinary meaning, such that the simple flowing forth of water from a dam qualified.