A plan to build a home near Priest Lake, Idaho, turned into a legal dispute that lasted about 16 years and reached the US Supreme Court twice. In 2004, Michael and Chantell Sackett purchased property near Priest Lake in Bonner County, Idaho. In 2007, they started filling the land with dirt in order to construct a house. The Environmental Protection Agency later informed the Sacketts that their property contained wetlands and that the backfilling violated the Clean Water Act. The agency ordered them to restore the site and, according to the Supreme Court’s 2023 opinion, threatened penalties of more than $40,000 per day.
The entire case hinged on whether the wetlands of the Sacketts’ land were within the “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act.
