A years-long dispute over a San Francisco stormwater discharge permit came to an end Tuesday with a decision by the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in favor of the city, but the earlier-than-expected decision raises questions about weakening water quality standards in the federal Clean Water Act.

In most cities, treated wastewater effluent and stormwater runoff is released through a pipe into public waters. The EPA allows that to a certain extent through a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit, or NPDES.

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Ruth Dusseault is an investigative reporter and multimedia journalist focused on environment and energy. Her position is supported by the California local news fellowship, a statewide initiative spearheaded by UC Berkeley aimed at supporting local news platforms. While a student at UC Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism (c’23), Ruth developed stories about the social and environmental circumstances of contaminated watersheds around the Great Lakes, Mississippi River and Florida’s Lake Okeechobee. Her thesis explored rights of nature laws in small rural communities. She is a former assistant professor and artist in residence at Georgia Tech’s School of Architecture, and uses photography, film and digital storytelling to report on the engineered systems that undergird modern life.