The oily waters of the Cuyahoga River caught fire at least 10 times before being altered by the environmental riots that led to the passage of the Clean Water Act 50 years ago.
Before the law was enacted, cities and industrial facilities across the country dumped sewage and chemicals into rivers, lakes and streams. In 1969, a fire ignited in Cleveland’s Cuyahoga River, where sparks from a train passing overhead may have ignited oil and wood debris.
Standing by the river on Tuesday, the director of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said a bipartisan law gave officials the power to enforce regulations to make waters safe for swimming, fishing and drinking.
“The Clean Water Act has played a transformative role in protecting human health and conserving natural resources for the enjoyment of future generations,” said EPA Administrator Michael Reagan. “From establishing legal policy to driving technological innovation, the Clean Water Act has provided standards, regulation, policy, and protection for waterways throughout this great nation. Together, they have helped reduce pollution and clean up our rivers.”
Regan says progress in improving water quality over the next 50 years will be driven in part by bipartisan infrastructure legislation.
The legislation includes $50 billion to upgrade drinking water and wastewater treatment systems. It also includes funds to replace lead pipes and address new contamination with his eternal chemical known as PFAS in drinking water. Wisconsin is expected to receive her more than $800 million for these upgrades over the next five years.
As the state celebrates the law’s anniversary, Gov. Tony Evers unveiled a new interactive tool that shows where PFAS contamination has been found in the state.
“Unprecedented funding has flowed into our state from the Federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Act, and the investments we have been able to make at the state level have helped our communities address these issues, including this new mapping tool. There are more resources than ever to help, including invaluable information to help advance the fight to address PFAS contamination in Wisconsin,” said Evers. said in a statement.
PFAS are not easily degraded in the environment and have been linked to kidney and testicular cancer, among other serious health problems. A new tool shows that about 150 drinking water systems serving about 1.7 million people have taken part in voluntary sampling to determine if his PFAS are present in their drinking water. increase.
Chemicals pose a new threat to water quality as the Clean Water Act hits its 50th anniversary, but the problem doesn’t end there as the state works to clean up polluted water.
Despite its new threat, Wisconsin has made progress. The Department of Natural Resources notes that the Wisconsin and Peshtigo river basins were once “blackened and lifeless.” After the Clean Water Act was passed, other federal laws changed it further.
One such law introduced part of an agreement between the United States and Canada to clean up polluted hotspots in the Great Lakes. Since then, Wisconsin has completed restoration of the Lower Menominee River Basin. The river is one of her five sites in the state deemed too polluting for fish and wildlife.
Environmental advocates agree that much of the water is healthier today as remediation is underway.
“It’s easy to forget that fifty years ago the Milwaukee, Fox, Lower Green Bay, St. Louis, Menominee, and many other rivers in the state were heavily polluted with untreated industrial waste and sewage. Enjoy them,” said Mark Redsten, Clean Wisconsin’s president and CEO, in a statement. “In his 50 years from 1972, we’ve come a long way, but we can’t stop working.”
Work is still underway to restore Wisconsin’s remaining polluted hotspots, and the state has warned that the Wisconsin River is being spoiled by contamination with chemicals such as mercury and PCBs, which are known to cause cancer. It is listed as being
Wisconsin became one of the first states to implement the Clean Water Act through a permit program that limits discharges to waterways. By law, states must list bodies of water that do not meet water quality standards every two years. State regulators say 80% of water is healthy, but according to Wisconsin’s latest list filed last year, the number of designated waters has doubled to more than 1,500 statewide since 2008. doing.
State environmental regulators say the statewide phosphorus rule set in 2010 had the biggest impact on listings. States have created standards to limit phosphorus in waterways. Too much phosphorus from industrial, municipal, or farm effluents can cause algae blooms and harm public health.
Its efforts to curb pollution have met with backlash from some Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Devin Lemmahue.
In 2017, LeMahieu sponsored legislation leading to passage of the REINS Act, which restricts government agencies from passing costly regulations to businesses and communities. A 2015 state analysis estimated that compliance with the phosphorus rule costs more than $700 million each year. Since then, environmental advocates say other state laws hinder policies to protect water.
Tony Wilkin Gibart, executive director of Midwest Environmental Advocates, says Wisconsin cut the largest percentage of its spending on pollution control programs within the DNR during the term of former Republican Governor Scott Walker. . This is according to his 2019 analysis by the Environmental Integrity Project.
“In addition to budget cuts, the legislature is attempting to usurp power from the DNR and the state government as a whole so that Wisconsin can effectively implement the Clean Water Act in the future and its relevance and effectiveness. There are real barriers to sustaining it, as we face climate change and emerging pollutants such as PFAS,” said Wilkin Gibart.
The Clean Water Act aimed to have waters “fishable and swimable” by 1983, but Wilkin Gibert said the act fell short of that goal. By law, industrial and wastewater treatment plants must obtain permits that limit harmful pollution to water bodies. Still, the U.S. Government Accountability Office has found that about half of U.S. water bodies have not been assessed for pollution, saying the EPA lacks reliable data to ensure compliance. The Federal Comptroller also found that the EPA needs to take stronger action to address pollution coming from indirect sources such as farms, roads and parking lots.
In Wisconsin, Gov. Tony Evers called 2019 the “Year of Clean Drinking Water,” and Congress Speaker Robin Voss (R-Rochester) convened a task force to hold meetings throughout the year and set 12 created a bipartisan package of bills exceeding The legislation was intended to address a variety of issues, including manure spills and his PFAS.
The proposal failed to pass at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but several measures have since passed through a two-year budget or separate bills.
Moving forward, environmental groups are concerned about the lawsuit before the U.S. Supreme Court threatens to further limit the waters protected under the law. A lawsuit filed by Chantell and Michael Sackett could limit whether wetlands that occur only part of the year are regulated under the Clean Water Act.
“We are now seeing someone in the Supreme Court of the United States trying to remove protection from this country’s very vast amount of wetlands…old stuff.
These wetlands remove pollutants and prevent flooding as climate change is causing more frequent and intense storms, Feinauer said. In Wisconsin, the state has lost more than half its wetlands, and advocates say they can’t afford to lose any more.
Editor’s Note: The Associated Press contributed to this report.
