When the Supreme Court takes up an important environmental appeal Wednesday from the City of San Francisco, the justices will be asked to settle a dispute that at least some city leaders are desperately hoping to lose.

The question of where and how San Francisco should measure its stormwater discharge was debated in the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday.

Lawyers for San Francisco told the court it was "unfair and unworkable" to hold the city potentially liable for huge fines because of polluted water along Pacific beaches near the