Clean Water Act

Explanation and Analysis of the Document

The excerpt begins with Section 101, a declaration of goals and policy. The first goal is to eliminate the discharge of pollutants into navigable U.S. waters by 1985. The second is to achieve by 1983 an interim level of water quality that would protect fish, shellfish, and wildlife. The act gives the administrator of the EPA legal tools needed to control water pollution while recognizing “the primary responsibilities and rights of States to prevent, reduce, and eliminate pollution.”

Section 102 is titled Comprehensive Programs for Water Pollution Control. As the title suggests, this portion of the act outlines specific programs the federal government is enacting to achieve the legislation's goals. The key provision is the first, authorizing the EPA administrator to “prepare or develop comprehensive programs for preventing, reducing, or eliminating the pollution of the navigable waters and ground waters and improving the sanitary condition of surface and underground waters.” A particular target is any kind of discharge of sewage or industrial waste, with the goal of controlling pollution at the source.

The act also takes into account such water sources as reservoirs, which are typically used to provide not only drinking water for communities but also recreational opportunities (fishing, swimming, boating, waterskiing, and the like). Mention is made of “streamflow” and “the storage for regulation of streamflow.” These provisions of the act authorize such agencies as the Corps of Engineers (a U.S. Army corps that maintains the nation's water and other environmental resources) and the Bureau of Reclamation (an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior that oversees water management, particularly as it relates to hydroelectric power generation) to regulate water quality in reservoirs and the streams that flow into them—and to ensure that states do not underestimate and underreport pollution by giving undue emphasis to these bodies of water. Section 102 also provides for grants to the states to manage water quality if the body of water in question involves the activities of more than one state or crosses international boundaries.