Turns out groundwater is not a point source

In February 2018, the U. S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit held the Hawaii County of Maui’s pollutants were traceable to wells which discharge into groundwater and that groundwater was considered a point source under the Clean Water Act. But a new ruling has reversed that call and agriculture will benefit. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled on September 24, 2018 that the Clean Water Act (CWA) does not extend liabilitywhen pollution from a point source reaches surface water through groundwater movement. The plaintiffs in this case were the Kentucky Waterways Allianceand Sierra Club. The defendant was Kentucky Utilities Company which burns coal to produce energy and the leftover coal ash is discharged into man-made ponds. Kentucky Waterways and Sierra Club alleged the chemicals in the coal ash discharged into ponds leaked into surrounding groundwater, and the groundwater carried the contaminants to a nearby lake.The Court of Appeals was told this contaminating groundwater that contaminates a nearby lake violates both the CWA and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). This case is only partially complete because the Court held the RCRA claim must be heard by U.S. District Court.