Iowa Environmental Integrity Project Report: Clean Water Act's Promises Half Kept at Half-Century Anniversary

DES MOINES, IA -- A half century after the passage of the landmark federal Clean Water Act, and almost four decades after the law’s deadline for all waters across the U.S. to be “fishable and swimmable,” 50 percent of assessed river and stream miles – 703,417 miles nationally -- are so polluted they are classified as “impaired,” according to a new report by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). 
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Iowa is representative of many states with farm runoff problems, having 93 percent of its assessed river and stream miles impaired for swimming and water contact recreation (the fourth most in the U.S.) because of fecal bacteria and other contaminants, according to state data compiled for EIP’s report, The Clean Water Act at 50: Promises Half Kept at the Half Century Mark.

This post on the Iowa Environmental Council website details finding of the report and points to what needs to be done.  This post concludes: ​

What can be done to close the gaps between the Clean Water Act’s lofty goals and reality?  

​The Clean Water Act at 50 report offers several solutions as the law’s half-century birthday approaches (the Act passed the U.S. House on an initial vote on March 29, 1972, and became law on Oct. 18, following votes by the Senate and House to override President Nixon’s veto.)

1. EPA needs to do its job and comply with the Clean Water Act’s mandate for more frequent updates of technology-based limits for industry water pollution control systems. Despite a legal mandate for reviews of these discharge limits at least every five years, highly-polluting industries like chemical manufacturing have not had their standards updated since the 1970s – back when “modern” technology meant computers with floppy disks.
2. Congress should strengthen the Clean Water Act by closing its loophole for agricultural runoff and other “non-point” sources of pollution, which are by far the largest sources of impairments in waterways across the U.S. Factory-style animal production has become an industry with a massive waste disposal problem and should be regulated like other large industries. 
3. EPA or Congress should impose more consistent, universal guidelines for waterway impairment designations for all 50 states, and for gauging unhealthy levels of key pollutants like nitrogen.
4. Congress should make it easier to enforce key requirements of the Clean Water Act, including the cleanup plans -- called “Total Maximum Daily Loads” -- that are supposed to be one the primary mechanisms for reducing pollution.
5. States are set to receive billions of dollars from Congress’ recent passage of a $1.2 trillion bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. Governors and lawmakers should, whenever possible, target this funding to water pollution control efforts, especially in lower-income communities of color that have long suffered disproportionately from pollution.
6. Congress and states legislatures need to boost funding for the EPA and state environmental agency staff required to measure water quality, and to develop and implement the cleanup plans needed to bring impaired waterways back to life.
7. Although achieving the Clean Water Act’s ultimate goal of 100 percent “fishable and swimmable” waterways will be hard, EPA should keep driving toward this target by setting interim national goals by decade and by creating enforceable plans to achieve these pollution reductions.