Thousands of the nation’s largest water polluters are outside the Clean Water Act’s reach because the Supreme Court has left uncertain which waterways are protected by that law, according to interviews with regulators.

In its first set of orders since returning from a monthlong recess, the Supreme Court declined yesterday to consider three separate industry challenges to federal environmental regulations.

A new report says Colorado wetlands in danger from pollution or development are without oversight by the Army Corps of Engineers. “These are islands of moisture,” said Dennis Buechler, author of the report released Tuesday by the National Wildlife Federation, Ducks Unlimited and Trout Unlimited. The wetlands are important to wildlife.

The U.S. EPA is planning to impose limits on phosphorus and nitrogen in Florida waters that will be the first federal standards for nutrient pollution in the waters of a state. This action would potentially have consequences for other states.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has withdrawn a water discharge permit for a controversial coal-mining operation in northern Arizona pending public hearings.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has reached an agreement with Bucklen Equipment Company to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Water Act in Weld County. Under the agreement, the company will pay a penalty of $16,000 and remove any remaining gravel piles from wetlands along the Cache la Poudre River within the city of Greeley.

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One goal of the Clean Water Act of 1972 was to upgrade the nation’s sewer systems, many of them built more than a century ago, to handle growing populations and increasing runoff of rainwater and waste.

If the American Farm Bureau Federation has its way, the issue of whether herbicide spraying over water requires a Clean Water Act permit will be heard by the Supreme Court. A coalition of agricultural groups led by the Federation has petitioned the nation’s highest court to reverse an appellate court decision which found that such spraying requires an NPDES clean water permit.

Cargill Meat Solutions Corp. was fined $200,000 today for violating clean water standards at its meat packing plant in Fort Morgan. Cargill also entered an administrative agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that requires Cargill to undertake a range of corrective measures.