Stagnant Waters: The Legacy of the Bush Administration on the Clean Water Act

摘要

For the most part, the 36-year history of the modern Clean Water Act has been a tremendous success. In this period, the nation's waterways have shown dramatic improvement while there have been significant increases in population and growth in the overall economy. In just over a generation, the number of assessed waters currently meeting water quality standards has doubled. However, the Clean Water Act has not achieved its goals or objectives. There is still much work to be done. These years have provided us with significant insight on where the Clean Water Act has failed - most notably in controlling nonpoint sources of pollution from a variety of urban, suburban, and rural sources. Now, even when armed with the knowledge of how far the nation has come, and how much progress has been made to finally achieving the fishable and swimmable goals of the Act, the United States stands on the threshold of throwing all these successes away, and reverting to the days of dying lakes, rivers that burn, and waterways that are sewers. The actions of the Bush administration demonstrate how easy it is to turn the clock back on protecting our nation's waters, and to virtually eliminate any Federal 'safety-net' in protecting the nation's water-related environment. In just under a decade, the Bush administration has shown that the decisions, priorities, and policy choices made by the Executive Branch can mean the difference between restoring and protecting our most vital natural resource from pollution, and bringing these protections to a stand-still. During the last few years, we have started to see evidence of declining water quality conditions throughout the nation, mostly as a result of neglect and underfunding of Clean Water Act priorities.