Ninth Circuit reaffirms Clean Water Act carve-out for irrigated agriculture — and why it matters on the ground

Ninth Circuit preserves irrigation-return-flow exemption

A federal appeals court has upheld a cornerstone protection for Western agriculture, ruling that irrigation return flows remain exempt from federal Clean Water Act (CWA) permits so long as they don’t include additional point-source discharges unrelated to crop production. The decision preserves decades of practice for farms and water districts while clarifying where the exemption begins and ends.