Water Pollution Control Act

376 Words2 Pages
WATER POLLUTION CONTROL ACT The Clean Water Act is the major national law in the US that governs water pollution. The act was enacted in 1972 and established goals of reducing releases of high quantities of toxic substances into rivers, eradicating further water pollution by 1985, and making sure that surface waters would meet standards that are basic for human recreation and sports by 1983.The major performing body of law is based on the Federal Water Pollution Control Amendments of 1972- a major extension of the Federal Water Pollution regulation Act of 1948. Key amendments were passed in the Clean Water Act of 1977 and the Water Quality Act of 1987.Although water pollution act addresses various issues regarding water, Clean Water Act do not address directly pollution of groundwater. Groundwater protection laws are included in the Superfund act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and Safe Drinking Water Act.
History of the Water pollution control Act
The first major law in United States to address issues of water pollution was the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 (Pub. L. 845, 80th Congress). This law assumed doctrines of federal and state joint program development, limited federal implementation authority, and limited central financial assistance. These doctrines were extended in the central Water Pollution Control Act of 1956 and in the Water Quality Act of 1965 (Pub. L. 660, 84th Congress). Under the 1965 Act, nations were pushed to build up water quality standards for creating water superior targets for throughway waters. By the beginning of 1970's, all the nations had already assumed such water superior standards. Since then, nations have amended their standards to echo new controlled information, the effect on water superiority of economic growth and the outcomes of water quality regulations. Owing to enforcement intricacies and other

More about Water Pollution Control Act

Open Document