The Federal Water Pollution Control Act Of 1948

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 United States Environmental Protection Agency or EPA was initially proposed in 1970 by then President Richard Nixon. The agency was created to build on other environmental regulations enacted by the federal government and to consolidate those efforts to be managed by one government agency. It was also a reaction to the public’s growing concern over pollution and other environmental issues. Chemical waste was commonly released into bodies of water creating unsafe drinking water and rivers catching fire. Industrial air pollution, such as acid rain and smog, was also affecting manufacturing cities with coal-powered plants. There was little serious regulation on pollution until major environment laws started being passed by Congress in the early sixties.

This was the first declaration by federal government identifying that it was the rights of states and local governments to be responsible for controlling air pollution. The government took the health and public welfare of Americans seriously by passing the Air Pollution Act, but ironically, the federal government was not in any form engaging in air pollution clean up or prosecuting those responsible for pollution. This act did not reduce any of the smog in the atmosphere, nor did it make it easier for states with low funding to tackle their own city’s air pollution problems. The unseen long term benefits of this act were the federal research funds implemented to conduct air pollution research which eventually structured the Clean Air Act of

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.

The Senate Committee on Public Works recognized the ever-growing environmental issues and released House report No. 1829 stating, “Pollution of our water resources by domestic and industrial wastes has become an increasingly serious problem... Polluted waters menace the public health, destroy fish and game life, and rob us of other benefits of our natural resources.” Accompanied by support from President Harry S. Truman, although not without dispute, the FWPCA of 1948 was passed by Congress (Berry 1969). Disagreement was had over whether water pollution was an issue to be dealt with by the state or the federal government. An issue that remains today. The vision of a substantially enforced legislation diminished into a much more feeble bill where water pollution was viewed as a state or local problem and the Federal government only intervened when invited to settle interstate water conflicts (Berry

The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in which the US governs water pollution. The Act states the objectives of eliminating releases of high amounts of toxic substances into water. The CWA made it unlawful to dump toxic materials into navigable, waters unless given a permit. The permit is given through the EPA’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System. The purpose of The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System is to regulate point sources that flow into bodies of water. The Clean Water Act has been changed over the years because of

In the 1970’s there was growing confusion regarding environmental policy due to certain states creating environmental protection laws which were largely ineffective. To ease confusion, fix national guidelines, and monitor and enforce them President Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA functions under three federal departments: the Interior, Agriculture, and Health, Education and Welfare departments. The original role of the EPA was to administrate the Clean Air Act which was enacted to reduce the air pollution caused by vehicles and industry. The EPA has since grown to enforce at least 12 major statutes such as: ocean dumping laws, safe drinking water, insecticides, and asbestos hazards in

regulation, in the United States, stemmed from the Clean Air Act of 1970. The act instituted the first federal standards for air quality and enabled these standards to be enforced. It also authorized federal and state regulations to limit emissions from stationary, or industrial, sources and mobile sources like automobiles. Specifically, its goal for automobiles was to reduce pollution and health problems caused by vehicles and by gasoline use. Catalytic converters, which convert would-be toxic emissions into less harmful gasses, became a required component in new vehicles in 1976. Leaded gasoline was phased out because vehicles with the converter could not operate on it, and this also eliminated the public health concern caused by lead. By

In 1972 the Clean Water Act was created by amending the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 (History of the Clean Water Act). The Clean Water Act is the product of almost 100

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.

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) define the (MCLG) as a minimum level of a contaminant or pollutant concentration in the drinking water below which there is no harmful effect or expected risk to human health. Also, (MCLG) is non-enforceable public health goal. As for (MCL) is the maximum level of a contaminant or pollutant concentration that is permissible in the drinking water. Also, (MCL) is enforceable standard that is set as close to the (MCLG) as possible, by using the best available treatment technology (to ensure control of a contaminant) and taking cost into the consideration. It is good to know, that the contaminant concentration will contain all inorganic substance, organic substance, and microorganism.

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

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.