Ryan Giroux
Policy History Draft / Clean Water Act 1972
Prof. Hejny
10.19.17
The Original 1948 bill
The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 was the first major law by Congress to address the issues surrounding water pollution in the United States. This 1948 legislation was the precursor and framework for the Clean Water Act of 1972. There had been numerous attempts to pass legislation in the beginning half of the 20th century to form some sort of legislation to deal with water pollution but until 1948 then it was largely unsuccessful. By late 1940’s, pollution of the country’s rivers, streams, and lakes, finally gained enough attention for Congress to finally confront the issue. Prior to the 1948 act, water pollution was seemingly only dealt with through relatively ineffective minor laws only one of which notable enough to mention, The Refuse Act. The Refuse Act wasn’t legislation for preventing water pollution but simply a law preventing the dumping of materials that could obstruct navigation of rivers. This bill did little, in the approximately fifty years after its creation waterways did not cease to be a common place to dispose of waste. Right before the beginning of World War II, states and municipalities attempted to move in the direction of dealing with water pollution, but the pressure of war production obviously hindered there being anything substantial.
After the end of the war, attention was able to return to the pollution of water. By 1945 we saw substantial amounts of dumping of raw sewage into streams, lakes, and coastal waters throughout the country (Major Acts of Congress). The pollution so substantial it led the Surgeon General at the time to warn that, “as a consequence, over half of the U.S. population relied on drinking water supplies of doubtful purity” (Major Acts of Congress). In the beginning apparently it was difficult to gather political support for a water pollution proposal. Legislators evidently considered the control of water bodies up until then a responsibility of the states and that federal regulation this broad reaching should be viewed with suspicion. Outside of conservationists and certain public officials few recognized a need for action at that would extend to the federal level.
The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 came about in the 80th Congress in 1948 through legislative compromise with the support of President Harry S. Truman and the bill passed the House of Representatives by a vote of 138 to 14. Despite the general consensus on the need to clean up polluted water, there was strong disagreement on the extent of waters to be covered, the rights of the states, and the role of the federal government as always. Some legislators proposed the extension of protection not only to interstate waters, but to intrastate waters. This did not come about due to it being perceived as federal overstep.
Ultimately the initial Federal Water Pollution Control Act was not well designed and achieved very little. For the most part, it didn’t do much to prohibit pollution, and gave very limited authority to the federal government, thus creating a tremendously burdensome enforcement apparatus. Due to the federal government’s incompetence in the requiring direct reduction in externalities, pollution continued to increase and the quality of the nation’s waters did not significantly improve. However, it is important to note the act was a fine example of both popular and political support for pollution control efforts. It also established the basic framework for water pollution control that we are familiar with.
Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972 (Clean Water Act)
In 1972 the Federal Water Pollution Control act would undergo a drastic overall, formally creating the policy known as The Clean Water Act. There are arguably two historical circumstances that could be credited with leading to the creation of the Clean Water Act as we know it today.
First was simply an individual by the name of John Blatnik and his disgust with the Mississippi River. John Blatnik was the chairman of the House Public Works Committee's Rivers and Harbors Subcommittee. While he was assessing the Mississippi river’s locks, dams and levees, he was struck by the river's filth. So much so that Blatnik drew up the Federal Pollution Control Act of 1956 to provide research on the causes and treatment of pollution, fund wastewater treatment plants, and create a conference mechanism for states along major water bodies to potentially decide pollution limits and cleanups. Though not implemented or particularly substantial this proposal brought early light upon the issue of water pollution and set much of the groundwork for the 1972 amendments.
Secondly there was common knowledge of the horrendously polluted states of both the Potomac and Cuyahoga Rivers. Apparently some 240 million gallons of waste were being flushed into the Potomac each day (Snider). Which is quite the staggering figure and was far past just noticeable, it was downright dangerous. Then there was the Cuyahoga river outside of Cincinnati which was lined with factories and so polluted that it was deemed largely unfit for any human use. Apparently it was so bad that common knowledge of the local residents was the urgency of immediately going to the hospital if they fell in (Grant). Then the river caught fire in 1969. This was not the first time the river had caught fire, but the point in which they realized just how disturbing this was. Furthermore, the Mayor Carl Stokes, was able to bring the issue to national attention the adept spokesmenship (Grant). Thankfully public awareness was raised to a level in which people decided that there needed to be something done the state of the nation’s waterways among other environmental concerns.
So due growing public awareness with the state of our environment the Clean Water Act came about. to The Clean Water Act is legislation that establishes the basic structure for regulating pollutants in the waters of the United States and set quality standards for surface waters. The Federal Water Pollution Control Act was significantly reorganized and expanded in 1972. With these amendments the law became known as the Clean Water Act.
I find it important to note that 1972 amendment of the bill remained in conference for 10 months, until a compromise was brokered at the beginning of October 1972. President Nixon objected to the cost of the bill which totaled $24 billion despite support for the bill's environmental aims. Nixon then, 40 minutes before the bill would have become law without his signature, issued a presidential veto. His response was "Legislation which would continue our efforts to raise water quality, but which would do so through extreme and needless overspending, which does not serve the public interest," and declared that the bill "budget-wrecking" (Major Acts of Congress). Thankfully only two hours after the presidential veto, the Senate voted 52-12 to override, with 17 of the votes coming from Republicans.
Growing public concern about water pollution led to many wide-ranging amendments in the 1972 bill. Some of which being the establishment of the basic structure for regulating pollutant discharges into the waters of the United States. And giving government bodies, later the EPA, the authority to implement pollution control programs such as setting wastewater standards for industry. This bill became one of the comprehensive environmental protection actions ever put in place.
The future of the bill would be that it remains active but would be amended again three times, in 1977, 1987 and most recently in 2015 each revision being more modest than the last.
Works Cited
Grant, Julie. “How a Burning River Helped Create the Clean Water Act.” The Allegheny Front, Allegheny Front, 25 Apr. 2017, www.alleghenyfront.org/how-a-burning-river-helped-create-the-clean-water-act/.
Hanlen, Jim, et al. “Water Quality: A Half Century of Progress.” EPA Alumni Association, 25 Mar. 2015.
Snider, Annie. “CLEAN WATER ACT: Vetoes by Eisenhower, Nixon presaged today's partisan divide.” CLEAN WATER ACT: Vetoes by Eisenhower, Nixon presaged today's partisan divide — Thursday, October 18, 2012, Greenware, 18 Oct. 2012, www.eenews.net/stories/1059971457.
"Federal Water Pollution Control Act (1948)." Major Acts of Congress. . Encyclopedia.com. 18 Oct. 2017 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.