Clean Water Act Confusion

The Clean Water Act is a piece of legislation in the United States that aims to protect the quality of surface water by using a variety of tools to reduce the amount of direct point pollution discharge into the nations waters. Landowners must go through a lengthy permit process in order to build on wetlands and other areas (U.S Environmental Protection Agency 2009). Recently, the regulators of this Act turned away two Michigan landowners who wanted to build on wetlands that they already owned. After taking this unfavorable decision to the Supreme Court, it was ruled that the regulators may have misinterpreted the Act.

The way the article phrases this incident makes it seem as if the regulators are incompetent at their job. It later mentions the fact that the Clean Water Act was just one vote away from being terminated as federal legislation. The author seems to be shedding negative light on this Act and the people who enforce it. Another way of viewing this statement, is that the author is merely relaying what has happened. She continually mentions the idea that water conservation can be very subjective, “And that makes it difficult to determine where the water ends and the wetland begins (Totenberg).” This concession makes it seem as if the author does not really think the

regulators are incompetent as each situation where this act is utilized is quite unique.

Overall, this article can be read in two totally different ways and this ambiguity does not give the reader a clear idea of what the author means. Read one way, both the situation and the Clean Water Act are seen as unreliable and antiquated. The other understanding that readers may have of it, is that water legislation is so subjective that it is nearly impossible to define right or wrong in any given situation. Perhaps given this idea, the Clean Water Act is indeed outdated and a new piece of legislation that encompasses all possible scenarios is necessary to prevent the Supreme Court from being involved in such an episode again.

-Elisabeth Shapiro

Sources:

Divided Supreme Court Rules on Wetlands Law, Nina Totenberg (2006). www.npr.org

Summary of the Clean Water Act, U.S Environmental Protection Agency (2009). www.epa.gov