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Background of Defending Clean Water
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During the late 1960’s the public became increasingly aware of and alarmed by the decline of the nation’s waters. Symbolic of their deteriorated state was the Cuyahoga River, running through Cleveland, Ohio into Lake Erie. It had become so polluted with industrial waste that it repeatedly caught fire. It burned fiercely enough that it ignited fireboats sent to quench the flames. Lake Erie itself had become so polluted from municipal and industrial waste and agricultural runoff, that it supported algae blooms forty miles long. Scientists studying the Lake predicted that it would soon be biologically dead. The projected loss of Lake Erie was a staggering public event.
In the early 1970’s, Congress responded to the country’s growing environmental crisis by enacting a series of comprehensive environmental laws designed to protect our water, air and land from increasing degradation, including the landmark Federal Water Pollution Control Act or the Clean Water Act. Its goal is to “restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity” of our nation’s waterways” and to make the nation's waters safe for fishing and swimming, eliminate harmful discharges of pollution, and protect the nation's wetlands. Since the 1970s, when most current environmental laws and regulations were created, private citizens have played a vital role in enforcing these mandates through the energetic use of the citizen suit provisions that are contained in every major federal environmental law. The CWA is successful largely because it empowers ordinary citizens to participate in the implementation and enforcement of the program, providing the opportunity for each of us to act in a prosecutorial role. Waterkeeper Alliance and our over 180 member programs nationwide depend on these citizen suit provisions to help safeguard environmental and public health and safety.
For the past many years, the CWA’s provisions - and the waters it was designed to protect - have been threatened by government action and special interest lobbyists who want to strip Americans of the right to defend their own waterways. Our Clean Water Defense work is designed to fight off attempts to weaken our current environmental protections and promote stronger legal safeguards for the world’s water resources.
During the late 1960’s the public became increasingly aware of and alarmed by the decline of the nation’s waters. Symbolic of their deteriorated state was the Cuyahoga River, running through Cleveland, Ohio into Lake Erie. It had become so polluted with industrial waste that it repeatedly caught fire. It burned fiercely enough that it ignited fireboats sent to quench the flames. Lake Erie itself had become so polluted from municipal and industrial waste and agricultural runoff, that it supported algae blooms forty miles long. Scientists studying the Lake predicted that it would soon be biologically dead. The projected loss of Lake Erie was a staggering public event.
In the early 1970’s, Congress responded to the country’s growing environmental crisis by enacting a series of comprehensive environmental laws designed to protect our water, air and land from increasing degradation, including the landmark Federal Water Pollution Control Act or the Clean Water Act. Its goal is to “restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity” of our nation’s waterways” and to make the nation's waters safe for fishing and swimming, eliminate harmful discharges of pollution, and protect the nation's wetlands. Since the 1970s, when most current environmental laws and regulations were created, private citizens have played a vital role in enforcing these mandates through the energetic use of the citizen suit provisions that are contained in every major federal environmental law. The CWA is successful largely because it empowers ordinary citizens to participate in the implementation and enforcement of the program, providing the opportunity for each of us to act in a prosecutorial role. Waterkeeper Alliance and our over 180 member programs nationwide depend on these citizen suit provisions to help safeguard environmental and public health and safety.
For the past many years, the CWA’s provisions - and the waters it was designed to protect - have been threatened by government action and special interest lobbyists who want to strip Americans of the right to defend their own waterways. Our Clean Water Defense work is designed to fight off attempts to weaken our current environmental protections and promote stronger legal safeguards for the world’s water resources.