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On January 8th, the United States Supreme Court unanimously held that water flowing from an “improved portion” of a waterway into an “unimproved portion” of the same waterway is not a “discharge of a pollutant” under the Clean Water Act. The case, Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council, affects dams as well as sewer and storm systems. This reverses a previous decision by the Ninth Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals that caused some concern among hydropower stakeholders. The opinion was delivered by Justice Ginsburg.
