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The Clean Water Act aims to manage and eliminate surface water pollution, protect aquatic wildlife, and maintain water quality standards. It includes point and non-point source pollution regulations, technology-based federal standards, and site-specific water quality standards. The act established the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) and the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) to regulate and fund clean water protection programs.
The Clean Water Act (CWA), formally known as the Federal Water Pollution Control Amendments of 1972, is the principal piece of legislation in the United States relating to surface water pollution. The law aims to manage surface water pollution, eliminate further pollution, protect aquatic wildlife, and achieve and maintain water quality standards for aquatic recreation. He hoped to stem further pollution by 1985 and raise quality standards to meet sports recreation requirements by 1983. The Clean Water Act originally focused on point source pollution, but his evolving programs have come to also include pollution from non-point sources.
In general, the Clean Water Act refers to three major bodies of legislation, the Federal Water Pollution Control Amendments of 1972, the Clean Water Act of 1977, and the Water Quality Act of 1987. The 1972 act advanced previous legislation and expanded the scope of protection of surface waters. Previously, the legislation had only reached what was covered by the ambiguously restricted “navigable waters,” but the 1972 amendments extended it to all waters within the United States and territorial seas. Congress interpreted this broadly, including allowing streams, wetlands, and other waters that might be considered unnavigable to be protected by the act.
Both the 1972 Act and the 1977 Clean Water Act dealt primarily with point source pollution, or pollution where a direct source can be found, such as from an industrial pipe, feedlot, or facility effluent discharge. governmental. Prior to 1972, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) had authorized many states to establish water quality standards (WQS), but lacked an effective way to enforce them. The Clean Water Act established a permitting program called the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES), to more effectively monitor and regulate point sources, which was to be managed by EPA in consultation with state agencies. EPA, under section 309, has the authority to enforce these standards. An offender on a charge of criminal negligence or endangerment can face large fines or jail time. States with the NPDES program must also be able to enforce permit requirements under state law.
Non-point source, on the other hand, refers to pollution that does not enter the water system at an exact point, for example from urban or agricultural runoff and from seepage to the ground. Rainwater drains, although they may have an exact point of entry, have also been included in this category. Non-point sources were originally exempt by Congress from Clean Water Act programs, research and growing awareness showing the seriousness of these sources led to the Water Quality Act of 1987 (1987 WQA). This act required industrial and municipal stormwater systems to be separate from sewer systems and to obtain an NPDES permit. Although agricultural pollution was still exempt, the 1987 WQA established a rapidly growing research and development grant program that provides technology, training, and technical assistance to support non-point pollution control.
The Clean Water Act established two sets of standards, a technology-based federal standard, which is a minimum requirement for municipal and industrial sources regardless of site, and site-specific water quality standards established by states to ensure protection of particularly vulnerable aquatic organisms. Anti-degradation policies protect clean water from pollution. For waters that consistently fail the WQS they are provided with a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL), where sources of pollution are researched and a plan is put in place to bring the water body into compliance.
Title II of the 1972 Act made grants to municipalities for the construction of wastewater treatment plants, or Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTW). The 1987 WQA replaced it with the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF), which supplemented state revolving funds with federal funds aimed at clean water protection, wastewater treatment, and non-point source pollution management. The funds provide low-interest loans to the respective states for the implementation of these programs.
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