WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court, in a potentially far-reaching clash between the environment and the rights of property owners, agreed Tuesday to consider limiting the federal government's power to protect hundreds of millions of acres of wetlands.
After its first private conference led by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., the court said it would hear three cases that asked the justices to cut back on the reach of the Clean Water Act of 1972, the antipollution measure that led to the cleanup of streams, rivers and bays around the nation.
A defeat for the federal government could signal the beginning of a retreat from broad federal protection for the environment. Some conservatives and property-rights activists have urged the high court to be more aggressive in protecting landowners from environmental regulators.
The landmark Clean Water Act gave federal regulators the power to prevent discharges into "navigable waters." That sometimes resulted in private wetlands miles from the nearest river or bay being declared off-limits to developers.
Environmentalists say the fight against water pollution cannot be limited to the rivers and bays.
"All pollution flows downhill to the navigable waters that the government can and should protect. The debate is over how far upstream the U.S. can reach to protect those waters," said John Echeverria, executive director of the Georgetown Environmental Law & Policy Institute.
In the late 1970s, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers adopted regulations that gave their agents power over distant ponds and wetlands. If these wetlands were polluted or destroyed, it could affect rivers and bays, the regulators said.
The Bush administration is defending the broad power of federal regulators to protect distant wetlands if they have a "hydrological connection" to a navigable body of water. This means that if some water flows at some time from the wetland to a stream, federal agents may prevent a farmer or developer from dredging or filling the wetland.
U.S. Solicitor General Paul D. Clement urged the justices to turn away an appeal filed on behalf of John Rapanos, a Michigan farmer who was hit with a prison sentence and $13 million in fines after he filled in the wetlands on three pieces of land near Saginaw, Mich.
"The federal government possesses long-standing authority to protect the quality of traditional navigable waters by regulating upstream pollutant discharges," Clement said.
