What is the origin of antidegradation?

Antidegradation requirements actually pre-date the Clean Water Act. They were adopted as policy by the Secretary of the Interior in 1968. After the Clean Water Act was passed, the EPA included the antidegradation policy in the first regulations on the minimum conditions for each state’s water quality standards (originally 40CFR130.17, refined in 1983 40CFR131.12).

Although the antidegradation policy was based on the intent of the primary goal of the Clean Water Act, “to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters,” it was not specifically added to the Act until in the 1987 amendments (CWA section 303(d)(4)(B)).

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