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Conservative justices on the nation’s high court Thursday rolled back environmental protections in a ruling that advocates say could lead to unchecked pollution in more than half the wetlands in the US.
By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court said that wetlands are only protected by the Clean Water Act if they have a “continuous surface connection” to larger bodies of water.
The case stemmed from an Idaho couple’s grievance with federal officials who had required them to get a permit before building on a soggy portion of their property near Priest Lake, just south of the Canadian border.
In the court’s property rights championing opinion, Justice Samuel Alito jettisoned a 17-year-old protection to wetlands under the landmark 1972 water law.
Alito wrote that wetlands have to have a “significant nexus” to larger waterways to qualify for federal regulation, agreeing with opponents who said the 2006 decision that gave broad protection was vague and unworkable.
