San Francisco will invoke the Supreme Court's landmark ruling from last month that weakened federal regulators' power in its upcoming case challenging federal wastewater discharge regulations, according to a brief that the city filed with the high court on July 19.

The city is arguing that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials misinterpreted a provision of the federal Clean Water Act of 1972 when they issued a discharge permit. In issuing the permit, the officials deviated from the framework of the statute so much that they revived the old regulatory approach that the law had replaced, according to the city.

The city argues that the Supreme Court's June 28 decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo, which invalidated the 40-year-old bureaucracy-empowering Chevron deference doctrine, has a bearing on the case. Critics say the now-defunct doctrine, which required judges to defer to the legal interpretations of unelected federal agency officials when enforcing federal laws that they deemed ambiguous, led to the explosive growth of the federal government in recent decades.

The Loper Bright ruling is expected to be widely cited in lawsuits challenging federal regulations. It's also expected to make it more difficult for government officials to generate new regulations.

The issue in the case, known as City and County of San Francisco v. EPA, is whether the agency is allowed to impose vague limitations on how much pollution may be present in wastewater discharged by water utilities.

The Supreme Court granted the city's petition without comment on May 28. Oral arguments in the case haven't yet been scheduled but are expected to take place at some point during the court's new term, which begins in October.

In its petition filed on Jan. 8, San Francisco stated that the discharge permits issued by the EPA order tells cities not to pollute water bodies "too much," but don't provide a specific limitation.

According to the city, its most recent permit is one of many issued across the country that failed to notify the permit holders about what they must do to comply with the Clean Water Act.