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Protecting America's Clean Water Legacy
The Administration is strengthening clean water protections.
Clean water matters.
Read the Fact Sheet
From the small stream your kids wade in to the marsh where you set up your duck blind, America's water resources are an invaluable part of our nation and our economy, but many of them lack basic protections The Administration is taking steps to ensure that all of our nation's water resources, including headwater and irregularly-flowing creeks, brooks, and streams that make up more than half the river miles in the continental United States and contribute to the drinking water of roughly 117 million people are protected.
Wetlands and other water bodies filter polluted water, reduce the risk of flooding, and provide important wildlife habitat. Since 1972, the Clean Water Act has protected our nation's water resources from unregulated pollution, filling and destruction. But rollbacks over the past decade have eroded the law’s requirements.
Some want to weaken this bedrock law, which is why the Administration should continue to move forward to strengthen protection for the waters that so many communities depend upon for drinking, swimming, fishing and economic activity.
Learn More
Find out more about our efforts to better safeguard clean water by ensuring that headwater streams and wetlands are covered by the Clean Water Act's pollution control programs.
Recent Blog Posts from NRDC Experts
External Links
- Latest Dirty Water Bill
- NWF's Restore Clean Water Protections (PDF)
- EPA's Clean Water Act Definition of "Waters of the United States"
- Geographic Information Systems Analysis of the Surface Drinking Water Provided by Intermittent, Ephemeral, and Headwater Streams in the U.S.
- NYT's "Rulings Restrict Clean Water Act, Foiling EPA"
Photo credit: Anthony Clark
last revised 3/28/2012
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