"Nearly four decades after Congress passed the federal Clean Water Act to protect waterways from industrial pollution, the proposal by Coeur d'Alene Mines Corp. to dispose of tons of effluent in Lower Slate has sparked an international debate," Todd Wilkinson reports for the Christian Science Monitor March 24, 2009." "The question soon to be answered by America's highest court is this: Should natural lakes be used as dumping grounds for wastes generated by hardrock mines?"