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The Clean Water Act of 1972

Major relevant cases (annotated)*

The Daniel Ball v. United States 19 L.Ed. 999 (1871)

Minnehaha Creek Watershed Dist. v. Hoffman 597 F.2d 617 (8th Cir. 1979)

Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc. v. Callaway 392 F. Supp. 685 (D.D.C. 1975)

These three cases go toward the definition of “waters of the United States” (that is, those waters that the federal government holds jurisdiction over). These are the only waters that the Clean Water Act applies to.

Most other major cases involving the Clean Water Act involve only point source pollution, which is not addressed in this analysis.

* Adapted in part from Weinberg (2001) and Coggins et al. (2001).

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