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The article focuses on the Supreme Court case United States Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) v. Hawkes Co., which determined jurisdictional determinations (JD) by the Corps regarding Clean Water Act (CWA) jurisdiction and wherein the Court returned a unanimous decision in favor of Hawkes as of July 2016. Topics discussed include the right of landowners to quickly challenge in court a finding of federal CWA jurisdiction over their lands under Hawkes.

The article reports on the agreement of petroleum firm British Petroleum (BP) in settling civil cases on the Deepwater Horizon Gulf Oil Spill disaster. It also notes that the settlement of the company with the federal government cost $18.7 billion which involves fines for violation to the U.S. Clean Water Act and compensation for natural resource damages.

The article focuses on various court cases regarding Clean Water Acts in the U.S. A unanimous Court concluded in the Los Angeles County Flood Control District v. Natural Resources Defense Council case that an issue imposing liability upon a flood control district for discharges of water into a concrete-lined channel has been incorrectly decided by the Ninth Circuit.

The article discusses involvement of the U.S. Justice Antonin Scalia rulings related to the Clean Water Act. It mentions issue over petitioner's wetland in the case Rapanos v. United States and the case Entergy Corp. v. Riverkeeper, Inc. in which Court held that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) permissibly relied on cost-benefit analysis in setting national performance standards.

The article reports on the U.S. Third Circuit Court of Appeals's interpretation of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDL). It mentions that the court considers its application to the allocations of load and wasteload. An overview of the Clean Water Act (CWA) and the case Am. Farm Bureau Fed'n. v. EPA is also presented.

The article offers information on mitigation banks in the U.S. Topics covered include the requirement for a section 404 Clean Water Act permit when performing land development activities that lead in discharges of fill material to wetlands and other surface waters, the process for establishing mitigation banks, and the products and services offered by mitigation banks which are credits, and compensatory mitigation and transfer of liability for mitigation compliance.