Clean Water Act at 50: environmental gains, challenges unmet

By JOHN FLESHER
AP Environmental Writer

Fifty years ago, Congress passed the Clean Water Act to protect U.S. waterways from abuses like the oily industrial pollution that caused Ohio’s Cuyahoga River to catch on fire in 1969. The landmark 1972 law led the newly created U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to adopt strict pollution regulations and spend billions of dollars on cleanups of rivers, streams and lakes. But challenges remain. Many waterways are still impaired, even after the act’s crackdown on industrial and municipal sewage discharges and years of remedial work. Runoff from farms, homes and city streets persists as a major pollution source. And it fouls waters and triggers harmful algae blooms in waterways across America.