The High Court's June decision ignores the spirit of the Clean Water Act and permits Coeur Alaska Inc. to use Alaska's pristine Lower Slate Lake near Juneau as a sewer -- a repository for 4.5 million tons of tailings that will kill virtually every living thing in the water.

The decision cleared away legal obstacles to opening the Kensington Mine, and by-and-large, many Alaskans approved, noting the prospect of scores of mining jobs and a boost to the suffering economy of Southeast Alaska. Even local environmental groups accept the mine. The only question all along has been where and how the mining company would dispose of its mine waste -- in the lake or contained securely on land.

Setting aside the Kensington Mine for a moment, the court's decision has broader implications. It clears the way for companies to dump toxic pollution directly into freshwater lakes, streams and rivers across the nation. This policy would have disastrous impacts on fisheries, wildlife and clean drinking water in Alaska, including at the proposed Pebble Mine project in the Bristol Bay watershed.

Lower Slate Lake and the Bristol Bay Watershed are entirely different terrains. While one might argue the damage to Lower Slate Lake may be reversible -- a debatable point -- similar damage in the Bristol Bay's watershed would be permanent. Is it worth destroying extremely valuable and sustainable commercial, sport and subsistence fisheries and wildlife habitat critically important to so many for the short-term enrichment of so few?

The High Court's decision effectively solidified a Bush administration regulatory change that allowed toxic mine discharge to be defined as "fill material." In so doing, the court opened the door for Pebble Mine developers to dump mine waste into streams and lakes in the Bristol Bay region, even including Lake Iliamna. Whether the Pebble Limited Partnership (PLP) would do that remains to be seen; the idea, however, has been considered. The PLP's application for water rights includes "Concept 12," a deep-water storage idea that involves dumping waste into Lake Iliamna.

And remember, the Pebble prospect is just one proposed mine in a much wider mining district that is sure to attract other mining operations should Pebble be permitted and the infrastructure built to move mountains of processed metals to market. Currently, it appears the Partnership is considering framing Frying Pan Lake with enormous earthen dams and burying it beneath tons of tailings. Do the options offered by the court ruling change their calculations? Only Pebble officials know. But even if Pebble chose the most environmentally benign methods of disposal and opted not to dump into streams and lakes, other miners might find stream- and lake-dumping more economically feasible under the court's interpretation of the law.

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Ginsberg had it right when she said in her dissenting opinion that the majority's reading of the Clean Water Act "strains credulity." The court's decision violates the spirit of the Clean Water Act, the purpose of which is to prevent water pollution. She warned that the ruling created a loophole that would allow "whole categories" of regulated industries to dump pollution into the nation's streams, rivers and lakes merely by relabeling it as "fill."

Now that the Supreme Court has spoken, it's up to Congress and the Obama administration to step in and restore the integrity of the Clean Water Act with corrective legislation. This approach to saving Lower Slate Lake -- and perhaps untold numbers of other lakes, rivers and streams in Alaska and elsewhere in the nation -- from the fallout of this disastrous decision demands immediate action

A legislative fix is possible. H.R. 1310 now before Congress would specifically prohibit waste from being defined as fill. The bill currently has 152 sponsors. What is needed now are the combined voices of Alaskans and others encouraging federal lawmakers to take the necessary step back toward some sanity in mining regulation.

Roberta Highland is the President of the Kachemak Bay Conservation Society.