In 1968, then Mayor Henry Maier described the Milwaukee River as “an almost dead artery.” The next year, in Cleveland, the Cuyahoga River, fouled by industrial pollution, caught fire. In the nation’s capital, anyone who fell into the Potomac River was advised to get a tetanus shot. Across the U.S., a nascent environmental movement – the first Earth Day was celebrated in 1970 – stirred Congress into action. That year it passed the Clean Air Act and established the Environmental Protection Agency. And, in 1972, on a strongly bipartisan vote, Congress updated the Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948. The amended legislation became known as the Clean Water Act, whose 50th birthday we celebrate this year.
The CWA aimed to have all waters in the U.S. “fishable and swimmable” by 1983 and for the complete elimination of all pollution into navigable waters by 1985. To achieve these ambitious objectives – clearly yet to be met – the CWA limited discharge of toxic pollutants from “point sources” such as factories, industrial sites, or municipalities, levying significant fines on entities which did not comply. Through EPA-set criteria, the Act regulated minimum potable water quality standards nationwide, as well as those for swimming and fishing. The CWA funded, to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars, construction of sewage treatment plants across the U.S. Thanks to the CWA, an estimated 700 billion pounds of pollution have been kept out of our rivers. The number of waters that meet clean water goals has doubled since 1972. Because of the CWA, we can drink from, swim in, canoe down, fish from, and relax alongside hundreds of once fetid rivers and lakes, cleaned up since its passage.
By almost any measure the CWA can be deemed a success story, much of attributable to one key provision. Under the CWA, each state is responsible for setting its own water quality standards. But federal lawmakers understood that often underfunded state agencies would be hard-pressed to monitor water quality throughout their respective states. The CWA’s Section 505 addressed that weakness by allowing for citizens – individuals or non-governmental organizations –to bring lawsuits to stop illegal pollution discharges. That powerful statutory tool gave rise to community action groups like Milwaukee Riverkeeper, and other Waterkeepers across the country, demanding action to conserve and protect our vital waters.
MRK’s “community watchdog” status has been essential to its advocacy work, including past success around dam removals and enforcement of permit requirements. Most recently, MRK’s and its many supporters watchdogged the December 2021 Komatsu oil spill into the Menomonee River. It was the first organization contacted by media about the spill, and the first to question Komatsu’s tardy cleanup response. MRK has weighed in how to limit environmental damage likely caused by the proposed expansion in Milwaukee of I-94. By hosting events like the annual river cleanup, Milwaukee Riverkeeper encourages citizen engagement in protecting the Milwaukee River Basin. This year, more than 4,000 volunteers removed over 110,000 lbs of trash from the Basin’s three rivers. Scores of “community scientist” volunteers each year wade into area rivers and tributary creeks and streams to test for pollutants and monitor the health of our waters. Their findings are sent to the state’s Department of Natural Resources and help inform how its resources are best utilized to protect our rivers, and are key to shaping their annual report card on the health of the Basin.
The CWA story has had a profoundly positive impact on the quality of our waters and our lives even if, as critics rightly note, progress has been uneven, its final chapter yet to be written. More than 50% of our waters remain impaired. Urban waterways, many of them running through disadvantaged minority communities, remain ecologically degraded. An amended CWA could directly address these shortcomings by regulating one of the greatest contributors to water pollution, “non-point” stormwater runoff. That includes the agricultural runoff which produces phosphorus-laden, fish-killing algae blooms and undrinkable water. Stormwater contamination, such as road salt runoff from city streets and parking lots, also needs to be regulated. Divisive issues such as which waters are subject to CWA jurisdiction, to include wetlands and seasonal standing waters that are part and parcel of the ecosystem, have to be agreed on a bipartisan nature. One good signal: the $50 billion allocated to the EPA for water programs in the 2022 Bipartisan Infrastructure Act.
In these divisive times, Americans and our elected representatives can still agree on the importance of protecting our waters. The economy benefits from it, through job creation and increased economic activity. We all deserve equal access to clean water. As we go to the polls in November, we should support candidates backing these objectives. The Clean Water Act brought us far in its first 50 years and as we begin the next, it is up to us all to work together to achieve its goals of equitably accessible, swimmable and fishable waters.
This story was written by Juan Alsace, a Marquette alum who volunteered to write this letter. He is not a staff member for the Wire.
To submit a letter to the editor, email Executive Opinions Editor Grace Cady who can be reached at [email protected] and copy Managing Editor of the Marquette Tribune Megan Woolard and Executive Director Andrew Amouzou on those emails. They can be reached at [email protected] and [email protected].