Federal Legislation Water Quality Monitoring and Human Health
The Clean Water Act
The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the main federal law that protects surface waters in the United States. The CWA was intended to eliminate all point source discharges, minimize impacts from non-point source discharges, restore all threatened waters and protect healthy waters from degradation. Although we provide a brief overview here, there is much to know, and we suggest that those who are interested read River Network’s widely acclaimed The Clean Water Act: An Owner’s Manual, available online at:
https://www.rivernetwork.org/marketplace/product_details.php?item_id=55334, or access an online learning tool, River Network’s Clean Water Act Course at:
http://www.rivernetwork.org/rn/cwa/home/.
The Act authorizes the EPA to establish Water Quality Criteria that are protective of aquatic and human life. States and Tribes then develop Water Quality Standards based on those criteria that protect, maintain and improve the quality of surface waters. State and Tribal standards are developed to protect the designated uses for a water body. Designated uses are things such as drinking or swimming – basically the way in which a waterway is used. You may wonder who gets to determine the designated uses. That’s often a hot political issue and the bottom line is that citizens get to have input into the process!
Water Quality Standards are ambient standards not discharge standards, meaning that they describe the overall conditions that should exist in a river or lake, not the levels specific to the discharge itself. These ambient standards, through a calculation process can be used determine what are known as the Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) and effluent standards that form the basis of water quality based permit limitations that regulate pollutants under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program.
Anyone who discharges anything into a waterway must obtain a permit to do so. States and the EPA authorize these permits if the proposed discharge will not lead to the violation of the established Water Quality Standards.
Page 50
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117