The Clean Water Act

5 Pages 1195 Words

The Clean Water Act: Is it Working to Keep our Rivers and Streams Safe?

Growing public awareness and concern for controlling water pollution led to enactment of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972. As amended in 1977, this law became commonly known as the Clean Water Act. The Act established the basic structure for regulating discharges of pollutants into the waters of the United States. It gave EPA the authority to implement pollution control programs such as setting wastewater standards for industry. The Clean Water Act also continued requirements to set water quality standards for all contaminants in surface waters. The Act made it unlawful for any person to discharge any pollutant from a point source into navigable waters, unless a permit was obtained under its provisions. It also funded the construction of sewage treatment plants under the construction grants program and recognized the need for planning to address the critical problems posed by non-point source pollution.
This act lays the footwork for how we live day to day and how we are supposed to protect our country¡¦s water supply, but is it working? Are we working to protect our water supply? How clean is our water? In this paper I intend to answer these questions and others that relate to this act and also of its effectiveness.
Water Quality Reports

For a 1998 report, all 52 states, 2 interstate river commissions, Puerto Rico, the District of Columbia, and 9 American Indian tribes rated water quality. These states and tribes assessed conditions in 842,426 miles of rivers and streams or 23% of the total miles of all rivers and streams in the country. Most were perennial water bodies that flow all year, though some of the assessments were conducted in non-perennial streams that only flow during wet periods.
States and tribes rate water quality by comparing data to standards. These standards are in place so that they have something t...