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The U.S. Supreme Court should rule that the federal Clean Water Act does not regulate groundwater because the Act by its terms applies only to surface waters and would conflict with other environmental laws specifically tailored to protect groundwater. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held in 2018 that groundwater is jurisdictional under the Clean Water Act, reasoning that groundwater can serve as a conduit to jurisdictional surface waters. Under this "conduit theory" of jurisdiction, certain industrial activities on dry land could give rise to lawsuits alleging such activities polluted nearby surface waters through groundwater connections. On appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, the NAM’s amicus brief argued that this broad interpretation goes far beyond the scope and intent of the Clean Water Act, interferes with other environmental statutes focused on groundwater protection, would be impossible to implement, and would impose incalculable liability risk on manufacturers and other regulated industries. Unfortunately, in a 6-3 decision, the Court held on April 23, 2020 that the CWA does regulate groundwater "if the addition of the pollutants through groundwater is the functional equivalent of a direct discharge from the point source into navigable waters."