Justice Kagan, If "Some People Like Less Prescriptive Standards" Why Haven't Any Members of the Regulated Community Said So in San Francisco v. EPA?

Today the United States Supreme Court heard from lawyers representing the City and County of San Francisco and lawyers for the United States Environmental Protection Agency on the question of whether a “narrative standard” can be enforced in a Clean Water Act NPDES Permit. When San Francisco first sought the Supreme Court's intervention in this case I predicted yet another loss for EPA in the Supreme Court. 

The narrative standard at issue in this case, and many others, is that the permit holder cannot “cause or contribute to violations of applicable water quality standards.”

The last time EPA considered a Clean Water Act case, in Sackett v. EPA (which was also an appeal of a Ninth Circuit decision), the Court held that EPA's (and the Ninth Circuit's) interpretation of the term “Waters of the United States” in…