Explainers of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund

Check NYT last week

The case, County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund, No. 18-260, concerned a wastewater treatment plant on Maui, Hawaii, that used injection wells to dispose of some four million gallons of treated sewage each day by pumping it into groundwater about a half-mile from the Pacific Ocean. Some of the waste reached the ocean.

This post on California Water Blog is excellent.

The decision’s reliance on strong groundwater science marks another significant step in the emerging integration of groundwater and surface water. The California courts and legislature have long regarded surface water and groundwater as legally distinct, but over the last decade that legal fiction has begun to break down.

And of course you can’t beat good old Wikipedia.

I wonder what was so bad about Maui’s treated sewage effluent that meant they couldn’t simply apply for a permit for direct discharge to ocean.