Court gives Navy Leeway on OK for bomb practice

April 28, 1982

In a decision weakening federal water pollution controls, the Supreme Court ruled 8 to 1 that courts need not order an immediate halt to waste discharges that do not comply with the law, citing judges' ''discretion.'' The decision was a victory for the Pentagon, which challenged an Environmental Quality Board decision ordering the Navy to obtain pollution permits before conducting bombing and shelling practice on an American island near Puerto Rico.