Did the Clean Water Act Work?
2nd July 2012
V. Kerry Smith and Carlos Valcarcel Wolloh, economists at Arizona State University, take a look at the effects of the Clean Water Act, enacted 40 years ago in 1972 by President Nixon: “we find average water quality in U.S. lakes is at about the same level in 2011 as it was in 1975.”
Not so’s you’d notice. Nixon was still a shit, for this and other bad legislation.
July 3rd, 2012 at 10:13
The CWA did NOTHING to improve the quality of the water in the Houston Ship Channel. In the 1980’s, a worker that fell into the Channel would immediately be taken to the hospital to be decontaminated. Biggest polluter? The City of Houston.
After 1990, the water quality in the Channel improved dramatically. Fish returned and the docks at chemical plants and refineries began having problems with alligators. (The largest source of oil on the HSC today is from people changing oil at home and dumping the waste oil in storm drains.)
What happened? The Oil Pollution Control Act of 1990 gave enforcement control to the Coast Guard. Instead of sitting in Washington or RTP NC or Dallas (EPA Region 6 HQ), there were actual people on the Channel every day properly equipped to move along (and over) the water. They personally knew the people in every plant and met with them directly. Coast Guard has a strict system of fines and can shut down your operations for any reason that affects safety or the environment – yet they are extremely fair and even handed about how they operate. They meet with companies and offer to help them develop ways to operate more safely and will volunteer to help you design new facilities.
During the 30+ inch rains of Tropical Storm Allison, a chemical plant suffered a massive failure of a sulfuric acid tank and the contents dumped into the Channel. Billions of gallons of water rushing through the waterway diluted the acid and washed it into the Gulf of Mexico. A week later, the USEPA sent a boat and crew out to the site and had them spend 4 days taking water samples in the middle of the Channel to see if any acid was still there. They didn’t find any. Your tax dollars – and the CWA – at work.