Create a new account

It's simple, and free.

Chesapeake Bay Pollution

In examining the reasons for, and the contribution of industries to, the pollution of the Chesapeake Bay, there may be as many explanations as there are tributaries feeding this famous estuary. If all that was required to explain the present condition of the Bay was an identification of the applicable laws and their violators, the task would be a simple one. Federal, state and local laws, and the laws of nature (tropical storm Agnes), have combined with human endeavors and expectations to produce confusion, inactivity, ongoing pollution, and a dramatic and historical decrease in the Bay's production.

Groundwater is affected by as many different laws as there are sources of contamination. The Clean Water Act, passed in 1972, gave the federal government primary responsibility for setting, implementing, and enforcing water pollution controls. There is, however, no single federal statute designed to protect groundwater. Instead, several different laws combine to provide a patchwork of protection: "The result is a confusing and incomplete federal system for safeguarding groundwater quality that in some circumstances creates powerful tools for citizens and in others leaves a vacuum to be filled in by state and local laws."1 Among the state and local programs which address groundwater pollution caused by commercial and industrial facilities are: the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-know Act (EPCRA); the State Environmental Policy Acts (SEPA); and grants from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to states to develop their own strategies.

The many uses of the edge, where land meets water, draws people so powerfully that nearly half the world's population has settled on five percent of its land mass, adjacent to coastlines. In America, almost three-quarters of the population live within 50 miles of an ocean or Great Lakes coast, and the bay with perhaps the greatest amount of shoreline edge for its size of anyplace on earth ...

Page 1 of 11 Next >

More on Chesapeake Bay Pollution...

Loading...
APA     MLA     Chicago
Chesapeake Bay Pollution. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 02:51, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/18821.html