Enforcing Clean Water

Who keeps your drinking water safe and your local rivers clean? The federal government establishes the baseline in laws like the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. State agencies then implement the laws. Local governments (e.g., your water district, your county health department) help carry them out.

Yet, we live in an age when governments at all levels are strapped for resources and chronically underfunded. Even those with the best of intentions find that things slip through the cracks: inspections aren’t performed regularly, permits expire and aren’t updated, research dollars are far too limited to set standards for each of the thousands of new chemicals that are introduced into our environment every year.

In short, the legal safeguards that exist are like speed limits: many people violate them, few are caught.

Fortunately, unlike traffic laws, our water protection laws allow ordinary citizens to play an important role in enforcement. And, all across America, the leaders and members of River Network’s nearly 700 Partner organizations are poised to do just that. These are people who spend lots of time on their “home” rivers fishing, floating, sailing or just exploring. They know every nook and cranny, every discharge pipe, every sewer outfall.

What they don’t know is what to do about it when something illegal is going on and the local and state government staff is either too busy or too indifferent to get involved.

That’s where River Network’s Protection and Restoration Program comes in. We provide the leaders and members of our Partner organizations with the knowledge, skills and resources they need to ensure the job gets done by training them how to use the Clean Water Act and other programs to protect their home rivers.

Find out more by visiting the Protection and Restoration Program page, exploring the online Clean Water Act course or purchasing our Clean Water Act Owner's Manual.