Clean Water Act Of 1977

In order to have a thriving and healthy society a clean water supply is a very simple but necessary resource. Dating back to the beginning of civilizations the need for clean water was an essential need. The Clean Water Act dates to Franklin D Roosevelt’s administration. In 1972 Congress amended and passed what is now known as the Clean Water Act to protect our precious resource of water. The clean water Act prevented the dumping of pollutants into navigable waters without a permit. Many municipalities and commercial entities had previously dumped sewage and unregulated waste in to our rivers and streams contaminating a great percentage of our drinking water. This wreck less contamination of our waterways not only affected humans but also affected our wildlife including fish and animal’s life that depended on these waters. Any municipality or company that could affect our waters would need to apply for a permit to do so. While the Clean Water Act was a landmark legislation that was supported by both Democrats and Republicans alike over the years has seen expansion of the EPA’s interpretation of the law and has created a controversy in Administrative Law that has many challenges up to the Unites States Supreme Court. (Television, n.d.)

Moving on, there are some issues with the legislation that has been passed in order to conserve the water, especially concerning the Clean Water Act. People are having opposition with the rules of the Clean Water Act. Small business owners feel that this act is restricting the way that they tend to their property. For example, several farmers use pesticides, herbicides, and other fertilizers to keep harmful insects and other animals off of their crops, so they can grow properly. These pesticides eventually end up in our local rivers, lakes, and oceans which are making humans and animals very ill. However, they make money by the crops they sell, and to them, the Clean Water Act has a very negative economic impact on them (Landers). Although

The Clean Water Act is an example of the law that was enacted to protect water from being polluted by the companies that are located closed to bodies of water. Companies are required to take care of the environment in which they coexist with as per the Clean Water Act to protect against pollution. Oil companies are required to acquire a license before they start a new offshore well. The Act serves as a form of protection for natural resources and the minimization of pollution. The law also ensures that companies take part in the protection of the

The Federal Water Pollution Control Act (FWPCA) (P.L. 80-845, 62 Stat. 1155) of 1948 was the first major law enacted by Congress to address the problems of water pollution in the United States (n.d). Legislators created over 100 bills in an attempt to pass legislation over the previous half century, but were not successful. Industrial and urban growth caused by World War II in 1948, led to obvious, notorious pollution of the country's rivers, streams, and lakes, urging Congress to finally address the issue. Unfortunately, the act was not designed well enough to achieve the goals set out to address the issue. It did not ban pollution, only gave limited power to the federal government, and provided an extremely awkward enforcement mechanism. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act was not successful in preventing and reducing water pollution. Pollution continued to increase because of the federal government's inability to require any direct reduction in discharges. As a result, the quality of the nation's waters had no improvement. On the other hand, the act established a popular and political support for pollution control efforts. Congress rewrote the act in 1972 to provide more acceptable protection for the nation's waters. It also established the basic agenda for water pollution control, which was amended by Congress afterwards. Congress made changes to the act six times before rewriting it in 1972.

On March 4, 2015, the Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 was introduced to the United States House of Representatives. Sponsored by Democratic Representative of New Jersey Frank Pallone, the bill called to amend “the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act to ban rinse-off cosmetics that contain synthetic plastic microbeads beginning on January 1, 2018” (congress.gov, H.R. 1321). The bill was then passed with amendments to it in the House in December, with Senate passing it a week later by unanimous consent. The Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015 is unlike a lot of bills that have attempted to pass through the House and the Senate because it did not face the all-too-common gridlock that one can expect nowadays from the United States Congress. Pallone said to the New York Times that although he was surprised by the quick success of the bill, it passed simply because it had a lot of support in the House and the Senate and did not have much opposition (New York Times).

All the controversy about the lead problems in Flint, Michigan has stirred up questions across the country. Every day there are several news stories about cities across the country discussing the lead issue and how they meet the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act. While the average person may feel comforted by these news stories, it doesn’t mean that every home served by the water supply has lead below the EPA’s recommended action level. It’s the job of water treatment professionals to educate those served by municipal water about the regulations surrounding lead and copper and what those consumers can do to protect themselves further.

Prior to 1948, an assortment of inconsequential laws were in place to govern water pollution. One example of this could be found in the Rivers and Harbors Appropriations Act of 1899 under a section titled the Refuse Act. While this was specifically written towards the prevention of dumping materials that may interfere with boating, it did indirectly lessen the pollution of waterways (Digest of Federal Resource Laws 2015). During these times, the ridding of waste into channels of water was viewed as the most practical method. Water pollution was beginning to becoming visibly troublesome, however World War II became a more pressing issue of that time (Berry 1969). After the war ended, the contamination of lakes, tributaries, and rivers, including the Mighty Mississippi, continued to evolve as a health and environmental hazard.

This chapter of the book discussed some of the pollutants that are discharged into the air from coal-fired utilities. It explained how weather conditions play a role in exposure and explained the measuring criteria for particulates. It explained how some particulates stay in the atmosphere longer and therefore travel a greater distance till exposure. It then discussed federal involvement in the issue and some of the Clear Air legislation that has been passed over the years starting with the Air Pollution Control Act of 1955. There were six pollutants that were determined to pose the greatest risk, carbon monoxide, lead, particulate matter (now subdivided be particle size), ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and sulfur dioxide. The final report listed

In an attempt to clean up, the dispersant “Corexit 9580” was developed and although it assisted in cleanup, it was not tested for toxicity and caused the aforementioned blood and organ disorders that cleanup crews subsequently experienced. Mechanical cleanup was initiated using booms and skimmers, but proved to not be very effective as the thick oil and kelp tended to often clog the equipment. High pressure hot water was also used to remove the oil but was discontinued because it kept on destroying microorganisms and disrupting the food chain and preventing biodegradation.

The Rio Grande River is currently on the 303(d) list of the Clean Water Act (CWA). The lower Sub-Basin from International Falcon Reservoir downstream to the Gulf of Mexico is lacking infrastructure to adequately handle the environmental consequences of human and industrial waste generation and disposal on the U. S side in locations such as Harlingen, TX. The Rio Grande is mostly affected by the high volumes of dissolved solids, such as salinity and bacteria. The U.S is working to introduce a common set of standards that can be agreed on by both countries.

The Clean Air Act in the 1970s enforced to clean out the pollution which started from the Air Pollution Control Act in the mid 1950's as a federal legislation, it involved funds to provide for research on how to control air pollution, soon after created public health services and required to expand their research to monitor the air pollution in the United States. The agency that is responsible for enforcing the law is EPA (Environmental Protection Agency). In the 1990's NESHAP's expanded the program to control the toxic in the air. Also, it sought the protection of the ozone and increased the enforcement authority to expand the research even further. Cleaning the water became EPA’s next goal when the air was polluted so was the water, the Clean

The Clean Water Act (CWA) founds the elementary structure for regulating releases of contaminants into the water bodies of the US and also for surface waters it regulates quality standards. The origin of the CWA was passed in 1948 and was named the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, then the Act was suggestively reorganized and prolonged in 1972. as "Clean Water Act" this became the Act 's communal name after amendments in 1972.Further down to CWA, EPA has applied other pollution control agendas such as for industry, the setting wastewater standards. We similarly have set some water quality standards for all pollutants in surface waters.

Enacted in 1972, the Clean Water Act was formulated with the goals of putting the end to the discharging of high quantities of contaminated materials into water resources, and further prevent pollution of water , and making sure that surface waters met the standards needed to support human and agricultural usage. Essentially, the Clean Water Act stipulates the fundamental structure used in the regulation of discharges of toxic pollutants into water resources of the US and ensuring conformance of quality standards for groundwater (Environmental Protection Agency). The Clean Water Act was draws based on the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948, which was later developed and revised in 1972 to the Clean Water Act. Under the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is authorized to implement programs to control pollution example being the establishment of standards for wastewater discharge for various industries. In addition, the CWA establishes the water quality standards applicable to all groundwater contaminants. The Clean Water Act makes it illegal to unload any contaminant material from a point source into navigable water bodies without acquiring permit from EPA. The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit program, under the EPA, helps in controlling discharges (Environmental Protection

in an effort to solve problems, which can be seen with the Clean Water Act.

There primary function of Clean Water Act is to devise the fundamental structure to control expulsion of polluted material into the U.S waters and implementing quality principles for surface water. In the light of this Act, several pollution control programs have been implemented by Environmental Protection Agency comprising developing standards against water wastage for manufacturing firms (Stern & Kollikkathara, 2008). It has also defined principles interrelated to quality of water for all pollutants in surface water. Clean Water Act states, it’s illegal to dispose off any contaminant from any point source into negotiable water without any legal authorization.