Last year, USF School of Geosciences Chair Mark Rains was part of a group of scientific experts who filed a legal brief in a crucial U.S. Supreme Court Case challenging the Clean Water Act’s ability to stem pollution flowing through ground water into oceans, lakes and rivers. The researchers argued that the scientific ability to trace pollutants from their source to bodies of water governed by the federal law gives the anti-pollution measure a longer reach in protecting the environment. This week, the court ruled in favor of environmental groups in their case against the County of Maui over pollution from a wastewater treatment plant which damaged a coral reef with its discharges, citing among the factors the ability of science to establish the links between the source of pollution and the ultimate impact it makes on the environment.

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