CLEAN WATER ACT

50 years ago on October 18th, Congress passed the Clean Water Act. This landmark federal law continues to be an extraordinary tool for ensuring that all Americans have access to clean, safe water. 

Prior to the Clean Water Act, waterways across the country became dumping grounds for raw sewage and untreated industrial waste. Many polluters would dispose their waste with impunity, endangering people’s health and entire habitats. This was perhaps most dramatically illustrated by the example of the Cuyahoga River, which repeatedly caught on fire due to dangerous levels of industrial pollution. To make matters even worse, far too often this pollution was disproportionately concentrated in areas with marginalized populations, exacerbating environmental inequities and racism.  

The Clean Water Act began to change this dynamic by setting rigorous pollution limits and providing strict penalties for those that violated the law and endangered public health. In Pennsylvania, the Clean Water Act complimented the state’s Clean Streams Law, bolstering its impact and ensuring that waterways upstream had to meet basic standards. All these efforts have had a significant impact, dramatically reducing pollution levels, revitalizing formerly devastated ecosystems, and even serving as a model for conservation efforts across the world.  

Unfortunately, the ultimate goals of the Clean Water Act have not yet been fully achieved. In Pennsylvania, one third of our waterways violate water quality standards. New problems are constantly arising, from polluters’ legal challenges and ill-informed regulatory rules to dangerous development practices, and the impacts of climate change. The stakes are simply too high for us to stand idly by, admiring the work achieved 50years ago. Instead, we must come together to ensure that the goals of the Clean Water Act are actually realized.