One of the biggest issues we have with our environment in the United States is the agricultural pollution that effects America’s waterways. To help try to solve this problem, The Federal Water Pollution Control Act was rewritten in 1972 by Congress, and is now known as “The Clean Water Act”. The real questions are what is the exact purpose of the Clean Water Act? What are the effects of the Act? How effective is it? What is the main cause of the water pollution?
The Clean Water Act was created to help remove pollutants in our waters. In the Article “Clean Water Act” Elizabeth Jester Fellows speaks of how these policies, “simply means that the streams and rivers are no longer to be considered part of the water treatment process”according to Senator Edmund Muskies (Pg.44). The Act suggests that sludge be disposed of in a way that will not cause environmental hazards; like recycling possible sewage pollutants, and proper disposal of pollutants that cannot be recycled. …show more content…
There are a few different techniques you can use to figure out just how effective this Act is, when used properly. Investigating the systems who has decided to abolish discharge is one method you can use to determine how effectively it works. Another way we can find out how well the Clean Water Act works, is by finding out the amount of discharge being removed from streams.
The Clean Water Act has had many effects. One of the effects was the people of Michigan being able to see through 16 ft. of water, in Lake Muskegon, after the first modern recycling system was created to eliminate point discharges into the lake. The waste water management system piped the water from the lake, to an inland site where they stored, treated, and used the water to irrigate and fertilize crops (Sheaffer, pg.45). Making Lake Muskegon a good example of how effective the Clean Water Act can be, when