Diving Deeper

The Clean Water Act is a landmark piece of legislation passed 50 years ago. However, it has still not been fully implemented and much more needs to be done to address the ongoing and emerging threats to the health of American waterways.

We call on the federal government to join Waterkeeper Alliance in holding polluters accountable and empowering citizens to ensure our water is drinkable, fishable, and swimmable. 

The Clean Water Act is a groundbreaking law — but it needs to be fully implemented. 

• It was a first-of-its-kind environmental federal legislation that came about during the birth of the American environmentalism movement, along with the Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act, and the Environmental Protection Agency.  
• It established precedent-setting pollution standards and provides legal standing to citizens allowing them to advocate directly on behalf of their waterways.
• To date, it has made meaningful strides in cleaning American waterways and helped us achieve significant restoration, protection, and cleanup of severe pollution problems.  
• Unfortunately, there has been an erosion of the Act’s strength and it has never been fully implemented and enforced as Congress intended. 

The Clean Water Act has not fulfilled its potential.

• One of the Clean Water Act’s initial goals was to see all American waterways were drinkable, fishable, and swimmable by 1983. 
• However, half the waterways in the country are still impaired. 
• Implementation and enforcement of the Clean Water Act have not always been as strong as they could be, allowing pollution to proliferate.   

The Clean Water Act must be fully implemented and enforced to deal with modern and future threats. 

• EPA needs to implement clearer definitions, stronger pollution standards, meaningful deadlines, and prioritized enforcement. 
• The law must address non-point source pollution, such as agricultural runoff from manure that is a major contributor to toxic algal blooms.  
• The law should adapt to the realities of climate change and environmental justice.
• The law must be enforced. 

The Clean Water Act has to address the realities of industrialized agriculture. 

• Agriculture has changed radically in the last half-century. There are fewer, bigger industrialized facilities producing our food. 
• Confined Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) must be regulated as a point source pollution. 
• CAFOs do not treat their manure and instead dispose of it directly on land, in a way that pollutes groundwater and surface water. 
• Pollutants from the facility are discharged into the watershed and cause algal blooms, red tides, pathogen pollution, and other dangerous conditions. 

The EPA and the Corps need to reestablish broad protections as intended by Congress.  

• Restoring the definition of what constitutes Waters of the United States (WOTUS) will inform protections and enforcement of the law.
• Including wetlands as WOTUS will protect thousands of these crucial ecosystems.
• Expanding what constitutes navigable waters will protect countless more waterways, including rivers and streams. As an example, more than 90% of rivers and streams in New Mexico do not receive protection from the Clean Water Act since they fall outside of this definition. 
• Protecting wetlands and headwater streams is one of the most important steps to build climate resilience.

The Clean Water Act and regulations must be equipped for contemporary issues. 

• Water scarcity, dams, and diversions must be addressed to protect against marginalized and frontline communities.  
• EPA and the states need to take more aggressive action on emerging contaminants and subsequent cleanup strategies.
• The laws must address climate change and environmental justice, two serious issues that were not in the vernacular 50 years ago, but that need to be addressed for the next 50 years and beyond.

A more fully implemented Clean Water Act can help in many ways. 

• Broader protections for waterways and wetlands can help protect communities against the threats of climate change. 
• More robust enforcement can help improve health outcomes for communities by monitoring emerging contaminants and other toxins.  
• Investment in infrastructure updates can help to rectify environmental injustices in frontline and fenceline communities across the country.