Celebrating 50 years of the Clean Water Act

CLEVELAND — This yr marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Clear Water Act, and environmentalists got here collectively Tuesday in Cleveland on the banks of the Cuyahoga River to have a good time.

The Cuyahoga River performed an enormous half within the Clear Water Act as a result of previously, it caught fireplace as a result of how polluted it was. Michael Regan, the administrator of the U.S. Environmental Safety Company, spoke on the celebration. 

“Whenever you come again and speak to neighborhood members and stand and have a river as a backdrop that will spontaneously catch fireplace as a result of it was so polluted, it actually brings the work to a stage of actuality that encourages all of us to struggle simply as arduous for the following 50 years,” he stated. 

The Clear Water Act of 1972 established the fundamental laws for air pollution management, wastewater requirements and nationwide standards for water high quality. Regan thinks the nation and Cleveland will solely get higher over the following 50 years. 

“I anticipate Cleveland, Ohio, to proceed to steer in fixing a number of the main challenges. Rising contaminants or these endlessly chemical compounds, eradicating our lead pipes, placing applications in place to try this to offer good, high quality, secure, reasonably priced ingesting water to each single particular person on this nation,” he stated.

He reminded individuals why persevering with to put money into the Clear Water Act and investing in reducing air pollution are so vital. 

“We now have to place the assets to the options to make sure that we now have good, secure, swimmable, fishable waters, but in addition have good high quality ingesting water,” he stated.

There may be nonetheless work to be completed, however the final 50 years of the Clear Water Act was a significant assist to our nation’s atmosphere.