About the Water Pollution Act of 1972

The United States Environmental Protection Agency was established in 1970 to address the environmental concerns of the country. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972, under the auspices of the EPA, focused on restoring and maintaining the country's water supply.

Significance

• A federal study conducted in 1969 showed that 3 of every 4 people in the United States obtained their drinking water from a public supply system. The study discovered half of these systems were substandard. There were concerns about the efficiency of these systems to adequately neutralize the negative effects of toxic substances and viruses that made their way into the drinking water. The Water Pollution Control Act of 1972's purpose was to restore and maintain the water supply.

History

• Prior to the establishment of the Environmental Protection Agency the federal government had enacted water legislation, which included the River and Harbor Act of 1886 and 1899. The original Federal Water Pollution Control Act was passed in 1948, to improve water quality and establish a national policy on water pollution. Amendments to the act in later years strengthened the federal government's enforcement provisions and limited the state's authority. Effectively implementing the laws designed to oversee water control was hindered by a series of reorganization of agencies within the federal government and a mishmash of laws. To resolve these problems, the authority for water pollution was passed to the Environmental Protection Agency in 1972.

Time Frame

• The mission of the act was to restore and maintain the integrity of the nation's waters by addressing issues such as the chemical, biological and physical qualities of the water. The act set two specific timeline goals: by 1983, a specific improvement to water quality or control for the protection of the fish and wildlife; and by 1985, all discharge of pollutants into the navigable waters of the United States would be eliminated.

Features

• Instead of simply regulating the amounts of pollutants in a specific body of water, the act provided for regulating discharge from identifiable sources, referred to as point sources. Administrator guidelines for effluent limitations were to be published by 1973. Industries and public treatment were given specific timelines to comply to conditions set forth in the act. The goal was zero discharge by 1985, although this was not a requirement under the law.

Identification

• Effluent limitations, as identified by the act, was a restriction by the agency or a state on qualities, rates and concentrations of physical, chemical, biological or any substances that were discharged into the water. Point sources, as identified by the act, are any "discernible, confined, and discrete conveyance from which pollutants are or may be discharged."