Overview of the Problem In 1972, Congress passed the Clean Water Act (CWA). This policy has been established to end with water pollution problems around the United States. Congress intended the Clean Water Act to be comprehensive and ambitious. The law’s stated objective was “to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's waters (Andreen & Jones, 2008). Major amendments enacted in 1977 and 1987 included provisions aimed at further improving the regulation of toxic substances. But despite its many successes, the Clean Water Act (CWA) and its amendments have failed to adequately control many sources of toxic pollutants. For example, the act required that by 1983 all surface waters should have attained …show more content…
Despite these drawbacks, the Clean Water Act has met with some huge successes. Prior to the Act’s implementation, only 33% of all U.S. waterways were considered fishable or swimmable; the number of fishable/swimmable waterways has now increased to 65% (which is amazing if you take into account the industrialization that has occurred at the same time). Before the Clean Water Act, the United States was reported to be losing 500,000 acres of wetland per year; that number has now dropped below 60,000 acres of wetland lost a year. Finally, according to an EPA report from 2012, 90.7% of U.S. water systems met all of the health based standards in 2011 (Emily Snyder’s Civic Issues Blog 2013). The strategy embodied in the Clean Water Act has proven remarkably successful. The amount of pollution discharged by both municipal and industrial facilities has fallen sharply, the loss of wetlands has been cut by 90 percent, and water quality has broadly improved across the entire nation (Andreen 2013). However, the act has given beneficial results and has been increasing over the past years. Now people have more access to drinking water or go fishing to lakes and rivers without being in …show more content…
The act should become a safe policy that provides Americans to be safe from water pollutions. That is why the act has provided many solutions. The Clean Water Act forced cities to build sewage treatment plants and industries to cut their toxic-waste output in half (Science News 1993)
Conclusion
The Clean Water Act is an extraordinary and valuable piece of legislation. It has served the nation well, but it is showing its age and is in need of updating. Neither its design nor its implementation was or has been perfect. Americans care about clean water. More than half of Americans believe it is a right. Ninety-one percent are “concerned that America’s waterways will not be clean for their children and for their grandchildren” (Andreen & Jones 2008). Today, The Clean Water Act has undeniably helped control and reduce pollution of the nation's surface waters. Many gross pollution problems that existed a generation ago have been eliminated (Issues in Science and Technology, 1993). Furthermore, society has been increasing and it is all because of the rules that this act has taken. For example, all the penalties of throwing trash away and separate it in different
Humans need water. In a world that is overpopulated, we use a lot of water and other natural resources. Currently, in our world, clean water is getting scarce. Recently, for example, Flint, Michigan, had a water crisis. In early 2016, the water was discovered to be tainted with lead and other toxins. Long before that, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and Governor Rick Snyder along with his council, knew about the lead, but to save money for the city of Flint in early 2014 Snyder had changed the city’s water source to the Flint River which had corroded pipes, causing people of all ages to be sick from the high amounts of lead
In the first chapter in the second half of the book Rosenbaum discusses issues that relate to air and water, which he describes as being the primary issues for environmental policy today. These issues are the most politically salient and most important. Rosenbaum explains the current condition of the air and water in America and explains the task that Americans face in restoring these; the idea of restoring America’s air and water sources has been a goal since environmentalism emerged. It is important to realize, however, that the slow progress is not entirely the blame of policy and administrative failure, but rather science and technology is constantly changing and therefore new and unanticipated effects are placed on the environment. On the flip side science is also constantly redefining the standards that need to be meet in regards to pollution. The way that he is explaining how the government is working to combat the problems of pollution he i...
In Stephanie Kaza’s, “Healing the Earth,” she poses the question “in the midst of such a challenge to planetary stability, what can one person really do?” (63). I was this type of person with the same type of mindset. Like most people looking after the environment was on the back burner. Until last summer, when I was slapped in the face and horrified at the conditions of the Flint River. Last summer, I was introduced to floating the river. Before we floated, I had always imagined what it would be like. I imagined pretty water, trees, grassy riverbanks, and to be able to enjoy all the scenery as well as the animals. Boy, was I wrong. We had not been long put into the Flint River when I began to be horrified at the site before me. There was trash everywhere. I spent the next six hours disgusted at what I saw. That's when I became involved in cleaning up the waterways. Cleaning up our waterways can
that we have to start watching where we drain our polluted water, and start to
This is an important topic. It affects the overall health of the population surrounding the Chesapeake Bay, as we eat from it quite often and it can be used as a water source. The chemicals being released into the water are from coal-burning factories and runoff, which can be helped, but it’s almost impractical in this day and age to spend the amount of money required to do so without the technology that can guarantee a fix.
The Clean Water Act of 1972 (CWA) was originally the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948. The original objective behind this act was to “to prepare comprehensive programs for eliminating or reducing the pollution of interstate waters and tributaries and improving the sanitary condition of surface and underground waters.” (U.S Fish and Wild Life Service, 2013). Throughout the duration of this paper the various amendments and their effects will be discussed, those involved both on the side of support and opposition and what influenced the amendments to be made and passed.
---. “The Clean Water Act—Is it Successfully Reducing Water Pollution?- Final Draft.” UTSA: WRC 1023, 11 Apr 2014. Print.
Americans go to the sink knowing with a simple flip of the nosil, clean water will magically appear. It is often presumed that clean water is a given and it is never acknowledged that saving water in one country could evidently help another country's water...
As swans drift with the current on a secluded lake in upper Canada they think not of the water they are in but of dreams of the past and wants for the future. On the other hand, seals off the coast of Northern California fear for their lives every day of humans exploiting their natural habitat. Many things can endanger water born animals, and most all of these come directly from humans. The pollutants of water come from many sources both close and far away from the water body itself. Wastes of humans are the major cause of pollution in the water, such materials include sewage, chemicals among other notable items. First, the composition water: water is odorless, tasteless and a transparent liquid. Though in large quantities water appears to have a bluish tint, it maintains the transparent tendency when observed in smaller quantities. Water covers approximately seventy percent of the Earth's surface in the solid and liquid form. Pollutants can be carried over a great distance by combining with evaporating moisture, forming clouds and then the wind taking the clouds to the larger body of water. This process is called acid rain and it is a major source of water pollution. Acid rain has been a problem since the Industrial Revolution, and has kept growing ever since. With acid rain moving over to a fresh water body, the plants and animals could experience pollution that they never had to deal with before and they could possibly die for the sudden change without them having time to adapt, if this is possible.
The Chesapeake Bay is polluted with agricultural waste. We see things like 1.5 billion pounds of chicken waste that no one wants to take responsibility for. Ignoring standards, a waterway was tested for E. coli; the standard is 125 FCU/100ml of water. Yet this waterway’s level was at 48392 FCU/100ml. An industry that will go to great lengths to make sure that Congress doesn’t impose sanction against them.
"Water Pollution." Current Issues: Macmillan Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 May 2014.
Water pollution has had devastating effects on the environment, which include irreversible effects to the oceans ecosystem. People often underestimate the importance of the ocean. They don’t realize how much damage pollution has caused to the ocean and the thousand of creatures that inhabit it. Earth is a huge place, but resources are actually very limited and will not last forever; unless there is a balance. We must protect the resources we have in order for them to last into the next generation. Every time we throw away a plastic bottle, drive our cars, and even burn those millions of fossil fuels to operate all those huge factories, there is a chance it will pollute the ocean and eventually effect the way we live. There should be stricter laws regulating human pollution, in order to protect our oceans ecosystem.
The Water Pollution Control Act succeeded in lessening water pollution in the USA. The USA needed to have clean waterfront in the XXI century and one can say that at present the USA figured out how to attain one of the most noteworthy immaculate levels.
Other advocates of water privatization argue that private entities, assuming not government subsidies, would be forced to price water at its actual economic value. This would decrease unnecessary uses for water, like cleaning one’s car too often because doing so would become too expensive for many people. There are benefits to pricing finite natural resources relative to their supply levels. In fact, Herman Daly in his book Beyond Growth, suggests such pricing as a response to capitalism’s wanton use of finite materials.
Today's waters are constantly being treated like sewage dumps or trash cans. We use them as garbage cans every day polluting the water more and more. "Pollution is often by way of rivers, drains and outflow pipes." Causing an outflow of sewage into our ocean waters. This is not only affecting the community but also the marine life and other sea creatures living in the ocean." This pollution includes human sewage and domestic waste water, factory outflows of acids and poisonous metals, engine oil from roadside drains and garages, farm chemicals washed off the land by rain, building-site rubble, nuclear waste from power plants, and oil from wells, refineries, and tankers." Stating that most of today's waste is from factory or factory ran products that shouldn't be polluting the water