1972 Clean Water Act

Local View: Herrera Beutler's stance on clean water all wet

In a move supported by U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, the House of Representatives voted recently to eliminate vital clean water protections for waters like the Columbia River. HR 2018 is one of the most brazen attempts to roll back the Clean Water Act since it was signed into law in 1972.

Before the Clean Water Act, our waters were in serious trouble. Major cities dumped untreated sewage every day, and industries used rivers for waste disposal. Lake Erie was declared “dead.” A spark caused oil on the surface of the Cuyahoga River to burst into flames. And most of the nation’s waters were not safe enough for fishing and swimming. The weak law on the books, which made states the principal protectors of clean waters and provided a very limited role for the federal government, had failed.

The strong federal role that Congress created when it passed the Clean Water Act 39 years ago was intended to overcome a patchwork of state water-quality standards and create a level economic playing field among the states. The federal role was needed to ensure that states did not allow weak water-quality standards at the expense of their downstream neighbors.

Thanks to the Clean Water Act, and its strong federal component, we’ve made a lot of progress as a nation since 1972. Today nearly two-thirds of our lakes and rivers are safe for recreation, fishing and wildlife. Compare this to 40 years ago, only one-third of the nation’s waters were safe for fishing and swimming. Wetland losses were estimated at about 500,000 acres per year. Agricultural runoff resulted in the erosion of 2.25 billion tons of soil and the deposit of large amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen into many waters. Although there is still work to be done, the Clean Water Act has proved to greatly reduce the high levels of contamination by heavy metals in our Columbia River. Prior to the CWA metals such as arsenic, lead, mercury, copper, and cadmium posed a serious threat to salmon and sturgeon as well as human health.

Despite our progress, many American waterways, including some in Washington, still don’t meet minimum water-quality standards — and many more will once again be polluted under the bill supported by Rep. Herrera Beutler, H.R. 2018. This bill undermines decades of progress and goes against common sense. It makes it impossible for the Environmental Protection Agency to make sure that states have strong, enforceable water-quality standards, and leaves states like Washington without strong legal protections against pollution from neighboring states entering the Columbia or the Spokane rivers, for example. It would even allow states failing to meet clean water standards to continue receiving federal taxpayer dollars for inadequate programs.

Local View: Herrera Beutler's stance on clean water all wet ...

In a move supported by U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, the House of Representatives voted recently to eliminate vital clean water protections for waters like the Columbia River. HR 2018 is one of the most brazen attempts to roll back the Clean Water Act since it was signed into law in 1972.

Before the Clean Water Act, our waters were in serious trouble. Major cities dumped untreated sewage every day, and industries used rivers for waste disposal. Lake Erie was declared “dead.” A spark caused oil on the surface of the Cuyahoga River to burst into flames. And most of the nation’s waters were not safe enough for fishing and swimming. The weak law on the books, which made states the principal protectors of clean waters and provided a very limited role for the federal government, had failed.

The strong federal role that Congress created when it passed the Clean Water Act 39 years ago was intended to overcome a patchwork of state water-quality standards and create a level economic playing field among the states. The federal role was needed to ensure that states did not allow weak water-quality standards at the expense of their downstream neighbors.

Thanks to the Clean Water Act, and its strong federal component, we’ve made a lot of progress as a nation since 1972. Today nearly two-thirds of our lakes and rivers are safe for recreation, fishing and wildlife. Compare this to 40 years ago, only one-third of the nation’s waters were safe for fishing and swimming. Wetland losses were estimated at about 500,000 acres per year. Agricultural runoff resulted in the erosion of 2.25 billion tons of soil and the deposit of large amounts of phosphorus and nitrogen into many waters. Although there is still work to be done, the Clean Water Act has proved to greatly reduce the high levels of contamination by heavy metals in our Columbia River. Prior to the CWA metals such as arsenic, lead, mercury, copper, and cadmium posed a serious threat to salmon and sturgeon as well as human health.

Still work to be done

Despite our progress, many American waterways, including some in Washington, still don’t meet minimum water-quality standards — and many more will once again be polluted under the bill supported by Rep. Herrera Beutler, H.R. 2018. This bill undermines decades of progress and goes against common sense. It makes it impossible for the Environmental Protection Agency to make sure that states have strong, enforceable water-quality standards, and leaves states like Washington without strong legal protections against pollution from neighboring states entering the Columbia or the Spokane rivers, for example. It would even allow states failing to meet clean water standards to continue receiving federal taxpayer dollars for inadequate programs.

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The Clean Water Act 20 years later

United States Supreme Court digest, 1754 to date

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