Essay/Term paper: Keep our water clean: clean water act

Essay, term paper, research paper:  Politics

Keep Our Water Clean: Clean Water Act


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.