““The Supreme Court limited the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority over wetlands in a decision with broad ramifications for the environment, agriculture, energy and mining.
Justice Samuel Alito wrote in the Thursday opinion that the Clean Water Act covers only wetlands with a ‘continuous surface connection‘ to navigable waters, overturning a 2006 precedent recognizing federal protection for wetlands with a ‘significant nexus‘ to such bodies. The new interpretation, Alito wrote, ‘accords with how Congress has employed the term ‘waters’ elsewhere in the Clean Water Act.’”