In 1972, Congress passed Clean Water Act (Water Pollution Control Act of 1972) and since that time it has led to more than $57 billion in grants to local communities under the federal sewage-treatment construction-grants program (Dinges, 1993, p. 124). Twenty years later, U.S. waterways no longer catch fire with chemical pollution, but they do carry invisible toxic waste that threatens fish and people. This is the issue which Congress plans to tackle in the fall of 1993 (McGivney, 1993, p. 30).
Industries have often run afoul of this law. For example, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently filed suit against Los Angeles-based Teledyne, Inc. for violations of the act. The suit seeks unspecified civil penalties of as much as $25,000 per day per violation. The EPA alleges that between July, 1988 and March, 1990, the company flushed water from a metal coating and etching operation that contained chromium in levels above federal pretreatment standards (Teledyne, Inc., 1993, A5).
Industrial polluters are not the only culprits. Pleasure boating is also facing new regulations and stiffer penalties in efforts to curb water pollution. In addition to the Clean Water Act, another bill has been proposed that would authorize marinas in California to initiate dye tablet programs that show where toilets have been illegally dumped (Knight, 1993, pp. 20-21).
Any law as pervasive as the Clean Water Act is bound to have its detractors, but some agree that the legislation is working well enough to limit pressure for immediate revision (Cohan, 1993, p. 47). The Bush Administration never submitted a proposal on clean water, and Congress has shown little enthusiasm for dealing with the massive legislation. In 1992, the only noteworthy bill, a proposal from Senator Max Baucus (Democrat--Montana) was stopped at the committee level because the wetland controversy.
Today, the prospects for the Clean Water Act seem uncertain....