Celebrate Clean Water: Clean Water for Healthy Communities

October 23, 2007 | Small Streams & Wetlands

Katherine Baer
Senior Director, Clean Water Program

As part of our series marking the Clean Water Act’s 35th birthday, it has been great to hear how this law has provided so many benefits to so many and provided solace and inspiration for generations. Rivers like Pinto Creek continue to be protected from pollution, and even what appeared to be small provisions of the law have ensured that thousands of projects are operated with community clean water concerns at the forefront.

That said – there is still much to be done. EPA’s long delayed report on the nation’s water quality shows that water quality is staying about the same or getting worse. Global warming will threaten many of the gains achieved and will challenge us to find ways to make sure the Clean Water Act can best protect rivers in a warming world. Sewage pollution has been reduced, but now with sharp declines in funding, there is a need to reinvest and to alert the public when spills occur to keep people safe and healthy by passing sewage right to know legislation. Great rivers like the Mississippi are still plagued by nutrient pollution and will be until the Clean Water Act is fully realized and states are required to adopt nutrient pollution limits. Likewise, control of polluted storm water runoff, a leading cause of pollution, remains elusive.

In spite of these challenges, I am inspired by Representatives Dingell (D-MI) and Oberstar (D-MN), who were both instrumental in passing the original law, and their continued commitment to this critical cause. In a call to arms they wrote about the need to pass the Clean Water Restoration Act to broadly protect small streams and wetlands to ensure that the goals of the Clean Water Act can be attained:

“Congress' intent to protect [small streams and] that are isolated and not adjacent to open waters arose from very practical considerations: It is far easier and more cost-effective to control pollution at the source, rather than address its impacts downstream. Navigability was not the goal of the Clean Water Act -- preventing pollution was.”

We will continue to fight for clean water, healthy communities, and a stronger Clean Water Act – the promise of fishable and swimmable waters is one of hope, and one on which we will not give up. Happy Birthday Clean Water Act!

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