Press Article by Donna

San Diego Business Journal
November 2, 1998

The Clean Water Act: Twenty-Six Years Later

     In July 1969, the Cuyahoga River in Ohio became so polluted with industrial waste that it caught fire. Rivers from the Potomac to the Mississippi were open sewers filled with untreated human waste. Fish kills and public health warnings were commonplace. Lake Erie was dead, and an oil spill near Santa Barbara cost the oil company responsible for the spill millions of dollars to clean up the beaches and ocean water. These vivid and disturbing images broadcast on television and captured in photographs in newspapers and magazines caused the public to demand action. Many in the business community objected to federal regulations, claiming it would cripple industry and eliminate profits. They argued for continuing voluntary measures, and fought the enactment of a national, enforceable policy.

     Three years later, on October 18, 1972 the United States Congress responded to the public outrage by enacting the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, commonly referred to as the Clean Water Act. Its mission was to 'restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the nation's waterways and to obtain zero discharge of pollution into navigable waters by 1985, and swimmable waters by 1983 Congress added additional provisions in 1987 to ensure that the water quality goals, once met, would be maintained.

     Twenty-six years later there is much to celebrate as it relates to Clean Water Act successes. Point source pollution such as discharges from sewage treatment plants and industrial wastewater plants have been greatly reduced. More than one billion pounds per year of toxic pollutants are now removed from our nation's water ways. The Cuyahoga River is cleaner, generating substantial economic revenue from pleasure boaters and tourists. Fish and wildlife are returning to the Potomac. According to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) fishing on Lake Erie is today a $600 million-per-year industry after a "host of pollution controls were imposed and water quality improvements have been achieved."

     But even as efforts to reduce point source pollution have increased, and there are many measurable results we still have a long way to go to meet the original, goals of the Clean Water Act. According to the EPA "40 percent of our nation's waters are still not fishable or swimmable." The single largest source of water pollution nationwide is nonpoint source pollution, better known as polluted run-off. Nonpoint source pollution can best be described as 'the result of man's uses or disturbances of land.* Put another way it is 'all sources of pollution except the traditional point sources." It is usually the result of rain or melting snow carrying pollutants from the land to the water. Dry weather run-off is common, however, in highly urbanized areas.

     Nonpoint source pollution is the result of a variety of activities such as forestry, mining, agriculture and urban development. The pollutants from these land-disturbing uses enter our oceans, lakes, rivers and streams and form a toxic soup of fertilizers, pesticides, oil, grease, Solvents, heavy metals, and sediment. This uncontrolled run-off has resulted in:

• Impairment of more than 100,000 river miles nationwide due to agricultural run-off
• Water quality damage in more than 24,000 river and stream miles due to resource extraction activities
• More than one million impaired lake acres due to urban run-off

     In 1997 polluted run-off was also one of the primary causes of beach closures in the United States. In San Diego over half of the 173 beach closures was attributable to nonpoint source pollution. Polluted run-off poses a serious health risk to beachgoers, due to disease-causing organisms such as bacteria, viruses and protozoa. Ocean-related illnesses include symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, respiratory problems, sinus and ear infections and skin rashes. While these diseases are rarely life-threatening, they are serious.

     Health problems are not the only concern, however. There is also an economic factor to consider; our beaches, lakes and rivers are valuable. Pollution causes economic losses in the billions of dollars in the U.S. each year due to health problems, lost jobs, loss of income and a reduction in tourism. Conversely, clean water generates an economic gain for the community. A 1997 Money magazine survey found clean water ranked second on a list of 41 concerns among the top factors Americans: consider in choosing a place to live. Plus, according to the National Association of Homebuilders "proximity to clean water is a neighborhood attribute that has significant impact on real estate values.' It is estimated that a clean body of water nearby increases a home's value by 22 percent.

     Tourism is also an important economic aspect to consider. Beaches, lakes and rivers are the number one vacation choice for Americans. Each year, Americans take more than "1.8 billion trips to go fishing, swimming or boating, or just to relax around their favorite water destinations." For example, in 1993 recreation and tourism provided jobs for more than six million people generating $380 billion in sales. Coastal tourism in California is valued at $54 billion and in 1997 over $4 billion in revenue was generated in San Diego alone. Clean water is necessary for a healthy economy.

     It is clear that polluted run-off is serious problem and the largest remaining source of water pollution. As the population continues to increase and more demands are placed on the land, it is imperative that solutions to prevent the pollution be identified and implemented. But to date, most measures to deal with polluted run-off have relied on voluntary efforts. These measures have failed to adequately address the problem, which gets worse every year. Even though there is a National Coastal Nonpoint Program (Section 6217 of the federal Coastal Zone Management Act) it is not backed up by enforceable measures. Section 319 of the Clean Water Act which 'directs states to assess their waters for run-off damages and create water-shed based programs to repair damages and prevent further pollution' has also failed to, prevent the pollution. The reason is that the programs are voluntary and lack enforceable measures.

     The problems related to polluted runoff are reminiscent of the ones faced before the passage of the Clean Water Act. Continuing to rely on voluntary measures is not going to work. Plus, approaching the problem solely on a local or state level ignores the fact that water is not bound by state borders. Polluted water from a state with weak environmental enforcement does not become clean water upon entering a state with strong pollution prevention and enforcement laws. Businesses are put at an economic disadvantage if they are forced to pay clean up costs or suffer the resulting consequences associated with upstream or transboundary pollution. There must be a level playing field for all industries and businesses so that they can compete and remain profitable. Without enforceable pollution prevention measures it is likely that history will repeat itself and the results will be images of fish kills and closed beaches airing on the nightly news and appearing on the front page of the local newspaper.

Donna Frye is the founder of Surfers Tired of Pollution, a self-funded environment group dedicated to preventing the degradation of our coastal resources, particularly our ocean. She is on the board of the Pacific Beach Town Council and the League of Conservation Voters. She is the communications chair of the Paciflc Beach Community Planning Committee and an advisory board member of the California Surf Museum. She also writes a monthly column (Politics of Pollution) for Uptown magazine.