Clean water act

Santa Ynez River. Photo by Brian Trautwein.

"Can we afford clean water? Can we afford rivers and lakes and streams and oceans which continue to make possible life on this planet? Can we afford life itself? Those questions were never asked as we destroyed the waters of our Nation, and they deserve no answers as we finally move to restore and renew them. These questions answer themselves. And those who say that raising the amounts of money called for by this legislation may require higher taxes, or that spending this much money may contribute to inflation simply do not understand the language of this crisis."

--Senator Edmund S. Muskie, Senate Consideration of the Report of the Conference Committee, Oct. 4, 1972, reprinted in Legislative History at 164.

On the eve of its 40-year anniversary, the 1972 federal Clean Water Act remains one of our nation’s most important environmental laws. The Clean Water Act was passed over the veto of President Nixon, by a bipartisan Congressional vote, reflecting widespread public outrage at the chronic pollution fouling the majority of the nation’s waters.

Congress’ ambitious goal in enacting the Clean Water Act was to restore and maintain “the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters,” achieved largely through the Act’s prohibition on pollution discharges without a permit. This permitting approach has been highly successful in helping to reduce some forms of pollution, particularly “traditional” end-of-pipe wastewater discharges from industrial and municipal sources. Two-thirds of the country’s waters are today considered safe for fishing and swimming, about double the percentage at the law’s passage.

Despite this success, many challenges remain. Many of the country’s rivers, streams, and coastal waters are still considered seriously contaminated by one or more pollutants, including major waters within EDC’s service area such as the Ventura, Santa Clara, and Santa Maria Rivers, Carpinteria Salt Marsh, Mission Creek, and Morro Bay. Stormwater runoff from construction, industrial, and agricultural areas, municipal sewer systems and treatment plant discharges, nonpoint source pollution sources, and dewatering caused by excessive surface diversions or groundwater withdrawals present major challenges and significant causes of degradation in many areas. Many industry groups continue their efforts to limit the scope of Clean Water Act protections to only the Nation’s largest rivers, an especially important issue in our service area due to our arid climate and numerous intermittent, ephemeral, or seasonal streams and wetlands.

EDC has worked throughout its history to protect and restore water quality, and to ensure lawful implementation of the Clean Water Act. These efforts, including lawsuits brought pursuant to the CWA’s “citizen suit” enforcement provision, include:

• Successfully challenged EPA’s stormwater regulations, leading to stricter national standards for stormwater discharges from industrial, municipal, agricultural, and other sources.
• Represented National Parks Conservation Association in a successful Clean Water Act enforcement action to address severe water quality degradation within Channel Islands National Park caused by private grazing and hunting operations on Santa Rosa Island. Under a settlement agreement, all cattle were removed from the island in the 1990s and at the end of 2011 all the remaining non-native deer and elk that were introduced for a trophy hunting operation were removed.
• Successfully sued to compel EPA to update expired NPDES permits for 22 offshore oil platforms discharging pollutants to ocean waters, leading to the adoption of stronger water quality standards.
• Successfully challenged the State Water Resources Control Board’s failure to establish adequate limits on toxic pollutants for the state’s inland waters.
• Launched the Santa Barbara ChannelKeeper, a non-profit organization dedicated to protecting and restoring the Santa Barbara Channel and its watersheds through citizen action, field work, education, and enforcement.
• Represented EDC and Santa Barbara ChannelKeeper in enforcement action against Halaco, a metals recycling facility next to Ormond Beach. The facility ultimately closed, and the site is being cleaned up as part of EPA’s Superfund program.
  

CURRENT!

Rincon Grubb: Oil and gas field in coastal Ventura
Multi-Chem: Chemical blending facility on the lower Ventura River
Ag Waiver