Clean Water: An Overview
Since the Clean Water Act was passed in 1972, it has been responsible for significant improvements in the quality of our lakes and rivers. Unfortunately, America is still a long way from achieving the goal of cleaning up all of our nation's waterways. The Clean Water Campaign is working at the state and local level to protect sources of drinking water from pollution, defending federal and state clean water protections from attack, and addressing the largest sources of water pollution: sewage and storm water runoff.
The Clean Water Act is commonly regarded as one of our country's most successful environmental laws. It is thanks to this piece of legislation that we have clean drinking water and clean lakes and rivers in which to recreate.
Today about 60% of our rivers and 55% of our lakes are safe for swimming and fishing, compared with just 36% in 1972. Unfortunately the progress we have made in cleaning our waters during the last three decades is now at risk.
All Americans deserve safe and healthy drinking water. Unfortunately, Supreme Court decisions and a recent Army Corps of Engineers guidance have lent strength to attempts by developers, the oil industry and polluters to strip Clean Water Act protections from the drinking water sources of communities both large and small. If these important waters lose longstanding protections, the EPA estimates that the drinking water sources of more than 110 million people could be at risk.
Excess nutrients from farm animal waste, fertilizers, human sewage, cars, coal-burning power plants, and storm water runoff from sprawling development and highways can have a destructive impact on our nation's waterways -- from Hawaii to Vermont.
hat we do: We work to educate and enlist the public in protecting and restoring the quality of our nation's waters and wetlands.
The Clean Water Act is commonly regarded as one of our country's most successful environmental laws. It is thanks to this piece of legislation that we have clean drinking water and clean lakes and rivers in which to recreate.
All Americans deserve safe and healthy drinking water. Unfortunately, Supreme Court decisions and a recent Army Corps of Engineers guidance have lent strength to attempts by developers, the oil industry and polluters to strip Clean Water Act protections from the drinking water sources of communities both large and small. If these important waters lose longstanding protections, the EPA estimates that the drinking water sources of more than 110 million people could be at risk. 
Excess nutrients from farm animal waste, fertilizers, human sewage, cars, coal-burning power plants, and storm water runoff from sprawling development and highways can have a destructive impact on our nation's waterways -- from Hawaii to Vermont.