Domestic Affairs

EDISON, N.J., June 7 (ZFJ) — Smoke from Canadian wildfires drifted into the eastern and central U.S., tinting the sky orange and triggering air quality alerts on Wednesday. Canadian authorities are battling “one of the worst wildfire seasons on record,” said Steven Guilbeault, Canadian minister of environment and climate change. The country is currently facing over 400 wildfires, with over half out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre.

May 28 (ZFJ) — The federal government can only regulate wetlands with “a continuous surface connection” to adjacent “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act (1972), ruled the Supreme Court on Thursday, May 25, in Sackett v. EPA (21-454). The CWA is the primary federal law regulating water pollution and prohibits the “discharge of any pollutant,” including “chemical wastes,” “rock,” and “sand,” into “navigable waters,” defined as “the waters of the United States, including the territorial seas.