Clean Water Act

The Clean Water Act (CWA), sometimes referred to as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, is the major federal statute in the United States governing pollution of surface waters (rivers, lakes, coastal waters, and wetlands, as opposed to groundwater). The act's broad impact on U.S. water pollution control practices means that it is important for communicators and others interested in federal water policy to understand it. Congress adopted the statute essentially in its current form in 1972, thus revolutionizing water pollution control law and policy in the United States in two major ways. First, the CWA reversed the traditional view that it was acceptable to discharge pollutants into waterways unless and until harm was proven. Instead, discharges are now presumptively prohibited unless in compliance with a government-issued permit that imposes treatment requirements and other conditions to protect human health and the environment. The burden is now on the discharger to show compliance with applicable discharge limits and other requirements, rather than on the public or some affected downstream user to prove harm.

Second, the law expands the concept of pollution beyond the notion of noxious chemical wastes or sewage. The statutory definition of pollution includes almost any man-made alteration of the integrity of the nation's waters, which can include changes in water body characteristics such as hydrology, stream bank conditions, sediment quality or condition, or biodiversity. The ambitious main goal of the law is not merely to prevent [Page 139]discharges of waste materials but to maintain the “chemical, physical, and biological integrity” of U.S. waters, as well as to restore them.

Significant progress has been made in reducing some forms of water pollution since Congress adopted the 1972 law. Most of the United States is now served by modern sewer systems and sewage treatment plants, and acute outbreaks of water-borne infectious disease such as cholera and typhoid have largely been eradicated in this country as a result. Direct releases of industrial chemicals into waterways have been curtailed, reducing risks to human health and environmental quality. However, neither of these problems has been solved completely, and other, more diffuse but still damaging forms of water pollution have received far less attention. Thus, although the law can be called a qualified success, much more work remains before the complete goals of the CWA will be achieved.