Cite as: 511 U. S. 700 (1994)
Thomas, J., dissenting
§ 401 certification, including "effluent limitations and other limitations, and monitoring requirements," that may be necessary to ensure compliance with various provisions of the CWA and with "any other appropriate requirement of State law." § 1341(d).
The minimum stream flow condition imposed by respondents in this case has no relation to any possible "discharge" that might "result" from petitioners' proposed project. The term "discharge" is not defined in the CWA, but its plain and ordinary meaning suggests "a flowing or issuing out," or "something that is emitted." Webster's Ninth New Collegiate Dictionary 360 (1991). Cf. 33 U. S. C. § 1362(16) ("The term 'discharge' when used without qualification includes a discharge of a pollutant, and a discharge of pollutants"). A minimum stream flow requirement, by contrast, is a limitation on the amount of water the project can take in or divert from the river. See ante, at 709. That is, a minimum stream flow requirement is a limitation on intake—the opposite of discharge. Imposition of such a requirement would thus appear to be beyond a State's authority as it is defined by § 401(a)(1).
The Court remarks that this reading of § 401(a)(1) would have "considerable force," ante, at 711, were it not for what the Court understands to be the expansive terms of § 401(d). That subsection, as set forth in 33 U. S. C. § 1341(d), provides:
"Any certification provided under this section shall set forth any effluent limitations and other limitations, and monitoring requirements necessary to assure that any applicant for a Federal license or permit will comply with any applicable effluent limitations and other limitations, under section 1311 or 1312 of this title, standard of performance under section 1316 of this title, or prohibition, effluent standard, or pretreatment standard under section 1317 of this title, and with any other appropriate requirement of State law set forth in such certification, and shall become a condition on any Fed-
725
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