Lesson 87: Public Policy and Water Pollution
In this lesson,
we will look at the efforts made by the federal government to
reduce water pollution and discuss the problems that remain as well as the
progress that has been made.
The responsibility of overseeing the quality and
safety of national waters lies with the EPA.
The Clean Water Act gave the EPA authority to
require permits for point source pollutants - meaning any discharge into the
water without a permit is against the law.
The Clean Water State Revolving Fund (SRF) offers cities and
towns loans to build treatment plans to treat all sewage.
There have been both problems and progress with public policy in the U.S. for
water pollution and management. The EPA has identified non-point source
pollution as the number one water pollution problem, followed by new wastewater
treatment facilities. Congress has been held up in debates and has not
reauthorized the Clean Water Act to make necessary changes today.
There has been progress as well. The number of people served by adequate sewer
systems has gone from 85 million to 223 million.
Fish now swim in
rivers once so polluted that only bacteria and sludge worms could survive.
These rivers and lakes were polluted heavily and now have been cleaned up after
restoration efforts that were initiated through the Clean Water Act.