Spurred by public outrage over massive fish kills, sandy beaches marred by huge oil spills, and rivers so full of toxic pollutants that they actually caught on fire, a unified Congress overrode President Nixon’s veto and passed the Clean Water Act on October 18, 1972. In the forty years since, we’ve seen amazing progress. But we’re not done – to ensure a clean water future we need to update and strengthen this landmark law.

We still face many water quality challenges, especially from diffuse sources of pollutants in runoff from cities, farms, and other intensive land uses.  

• The last comprehensive update to the Clean Water Act was 25 years ago and the law is beginning to show its age -water quality improvement reached a plateau more than a decade ago.
• The most recent National Water Quality Inventory determined that 53% of the nearly 1 million total miles of assessed rivers and streams are impaired, 69% of the more than 18 million acres of the lakes, reservoirs and ponds assessed are in trouble, as are 84% of the 1.3 million acres of wetlands.
• We’ve let our nation’s aging water infrastructure fall into disrepair. More than $600 billion in improvements are required to fix spills, leaks, and meet future demand.
• Every year an estimated 900 billion gallons of raw sewage is discharged into rivers and streams.  If we don’t increase our current investment, the EPA estimates sewage pollution will be as high as it was in 1968 by 2025.
• Two fractured and confusing U.S. Supreme Court decisions called the importance of small streams and wetlands into question. Now, these critical water resources, including streams that feed public drinking water systems for more than 117 million Americans, are at risk of losing Clean Water Act protections.

Although the public has remained steadfastly committed to clean water for the past forty years, many members of Congress continue to try to undermine the foundation of the Act in order to benefit polluters and other special interests.  Since January 2011, the House of Representatives has voted 38 times to roll-back key provisions of the Clean Water Act. 

* Video Courtesy of Minnesota Pollution Control Agency