Essay/Term paper: Clean water act

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Law

Keep Our Water Clean

The Clean Water Act has made advances to our society that have helped our
environment to flourish with life. The objective of the Act when it was enacted in 1972
was to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation"s
water. This objective was accompanied by other statutory goals to eliminate the discharge
of pollutants into waters used by boats by 1985 and to attain waters deemed "fishable or
swimmable" by 1983. So far, the Act has done exactly what it was meant to do. Its
purpose is being served and we our benefiting with clean water.

No where in the context of the Clean Water Act does it say anything about
respecting the convenience of businesses wishing to dump their toxins into our waters.
The Act was not meant to please everyone, but it was meant to clean our water, and that
should please a wide majority. We should not have to sacrifice our health for a business
that does nothing for us. Clean water is much more of a priority to us citizens than is the
well being of a company that we probably have never heard of and never will.

If the Clean Water Act Amendments of 1995 are passed, all that we have worked
for since 1972 will be lost. It will take all of the advances made to clean our water and
totally reverse them. This bill will take apart the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination
System, leaving loopholes for businesses desiring to pollute our waters. This bill also
demonstrates a flagrant disregard for the state of scientific and technological knowledge in
the area of water quality. It will corrupt our water in such a way as to totally abolish the
Clean Water Act, rendering it obsolete.

The intent of the of the Clean Water Act Amendments of 1995 is to increase
flexibility on businesses, States, local governments, and landowners. This increase in
flexibility is meant to relax some regulations dealing with the discharge of wastes and
stormwater into waterways, authority of States to rely on voluntary measures to control
nonpoint source pollution, limit Federal authority to restrict land use in wetlands, and
require the Federal Government to reimburse landowners for loss of property value
resulting from wetlands regulations. All of these measures will make it easier for toxins to
be thrown into our drinking water by businesses with no remorse.

This bill is supposedly supposed to help our environment, but it seems to me that
this bill is driven by political and economic interests, rather than the well being of our
environment. Why should we be more linient in the protection of our water so a business
may have a place to dump its wastes in. Rather, we should enforce the protection of our
water so that businesses are forced to go elsewhere with their wastes. Our water is far to
valuable for it to be polluted and toxicated with whatever it is being dumped into it. Our
water is sacred to use for its value in public and economic health and the enactment of this
bill will devastate this goal we strive for.

This bill was written on behalf of some of the most notorious polluters of our
environment and I seriously doubt that fact that their goal is to better our environmental
status. They are out to make things easier for their businesses to get rid of their wastes by
dumping them into our water. The realize that this water is used by many, yet they fell no
guilt in their acts of corruption. They could care less for our health, their main concern is
money. If dumping their wastes into our water would help them to save money, they are
all for it. The well being of our economy is irrelevant to them. It is not of their concern.

Those in favor of the bill state that it would still maintain the restrictions protecting
our waterways, and at the same time, give business a little more freedom to do their
business. This freedom that the bill proposes is exactly what we do not want. This freedom
that we grant them will be enough to destroy our waterways for good. Soon these
businesses will expand this minimal freedom to absolute freedom to dump their pollutants
wherever they please if we grant them this freedom. We must give no freedom if we care
for the long-term survival of our water supply.

By passing this bill and giving the responsibility of clean water legislation to the
States rather than the Federal Government, we are inviting these notorious polluters to
take command over our waterways to use them for whatever we please. Clean water is a
common goal among all States and it should be granted to all States by the Federal
government. By giving this responsibility to the States, we make room for polluters to
take advantage of single States and use them for their dumping. This cannot happen if we
want to preserve our clean water. This will not happen under the status quo.

The Clean Water Act that presides has done miracles for our environment. It has
cleaned up our waterways, preserved our wetlands, and basically, enriched our lives with
clean, fresh water that, after the first glass, leaves us yearning for more. Just the thought
of having to drink water that was even slightly under par sickens me. I am not willing to
sacrifice my cool clean water for the benefit of some money hungry business. I am sure
that many feel the same way. We love our water and will not give it up. If this bill is
passed, it will send our newly flourishing environment skyrocketing down the charts of
serenity, hence, bringing us back to where we were before the original Clean Water Act
took effect. I"ve never seen a an amendment to an act that totally reverses the act in all
ways. If we want clean water, we must do away with this putrid, beast of a bill.