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United States
Environmental
Protection
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Office of Wastewater
Management
EPA 833-F-98-003
June 1998
WATER POLLUTION CONTROL
25 years of Progress and Challenges for the New Millennium
In 1972, Congress responded to public outrage over the deplorable condition of the nation's
waters by enacting the Clean Water Act. Discharges of untreated wastewater from municipalities,
industries, and commercial businesses caused widespread pollution of rivers, lakes, and coastal
waters. Congress rejected these conditions and made a new commitment in the Clean Water Act to
restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters. EPA and
state implementation of water quality programs under the Act have been a spectacular success -
perhaps one of the best examples in the post-war era of the power of the government to do good, in
this case making significant strides in improving public health and the environment.
Progress
The basic approach in the Clean Water Act (CWA) over the past
25 years has been greater control of "point sources" of water pollution -
primarily factories and city sewers, along with controls on activities that
destroy wetlands. In the last decade, federal law and policy has been
strengthened several times. These include changes in federal farm policies
to substantially improve technical and financial assistance to farmers to
protect the environment, new changes in federal land management
policies to increase protection of aquatic resources and watersheds, and
new authorities to protect coastal waters. As a result of the Clean Water
Act, waters that are safe for fishing and swimming have doubled.
National clean water standards stop billions of pounds of pollutants from
industries from flowing into waters each year. The number of Americans
served by sewage treatment facilities has more than doubled. Before
1972, Oregon's Willamette River was off-limits to recreation. The Potomac River near the nation's
capital was badly polluted and unfit for swimming and fishing. Today, these and many other water
bodies that were once severely polluted are well on the way to recovery and people are increasingly
using these waters for fishing, swimming, and other recreation.
The CWA requires all wastewater treatment facilities to obtain discharge permits under the
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Program. In addition to industrial and
municipal wastewater treatment facilities, the NPDES permit program includes urban storm water
management, control of combined sewer and sanitary sewer overflows, and biosolids (sewage sludge)
management. This permitting program covers about 16,000 permitted municipal wastewater
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treatment facilities. About 3,000 of these municipal wastewater treatment facilities (or Publicly
Owned Treatment Works (POTWs)) also participate in the National Pretreatment Program, a
cooperative effort of federal, state, and local environmental regulatory agencies. The program is
designed to reduce the amount of pollutants discharged into municipal sewer systems by industry and
other non-domestic wastewater sources, thus, reducing the amount of pollutants released into the
environment through wastewater. The objective of the program is to protect the POTW from
pollutants that may interfere with plant operation, prevent pollutants from being introduced into the
POTW, that may pass through untreated and to improve opportunities for the POTW to reuse
wastewater and sludges that are generated. While the program is regulatory, its success is measured
in the large number of water quality improvements in the United States. Many rivers and streams
were off limits to recreational activities which affected economic prosperity; now with these
regulations, many of the rivers and streams have been reopened for public use.
Because of the CWA, thousands of municipalities have received federal funds to construct
or expand wastewater treatment facilities to prevent or reduce the discharge of pollutants to the
Nation's rivers, lakes and streams. To date, EPA has awarded more than $62 billion in grants to help
municipalities with the clean up effort and many water bodies have shown improvement.
Amendments were made to the CWA in 1987. These amendments introduced an innovative
method of financing a range of projects that promote water quality, including municipal wastewater
collection and treatment facilities. This program is the State Revolving Fund (SRF) which presently
boasts more than $26 billion in assets with approximately $3 billion distributed in new loans annually.
Since its beginning, the SRF has provided more than 5,700 loans throughout the United States and
Puerto Rico. One of the benefits of the SRF is that it gives the states flexibility to provide funding
for projects that address their highest priority water quality needs such as urban storm water and
nonpoint source management practices, estuarine and groundwater protection programs, and sanitary
sewer overflow control projects.
Discharges from combined sewer or sanitary sewer overflows caused beach closings, fish and
shellfish bans, flooded basements, and a wide range of public health problems. Many of these
overflows were the result of deteriorating or antiquated collection systems. To date, more than $6
billion has been awarded to rehabilitate collection systems to reduce these wet weather overflows,
thus, improving water quality and making it safe for public use and enjoyment.
Challenges for the New Millennium
Despite impressive progress, many of the nation's rivers, lakes, and coastal waters do not meet
water quality goals. Some waters face the threat of degradation from diverse pollution sources which
affect citizens' quality of life by reducing recreational opportunities, undermining local economic
prosperity, and threatening drinking water supplies and impairing public health. States report that
close to 40 percent of the waters they surveyed are too polluted for basic uses like fishing or
swimming. The success in cleaning up pollution from point sources (e.g., factories and sewage
treatment plants) has not yet been matched by controls over polluted runoff from sources such as
farms, urban areas, forestry, ranching, and mining operations. Natural areas that are critical to the
health of aquatic systems, such as wetlands, stream corridors, and coastal areas, are not adequately
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protected. In addition, water pollution poses a continuing threat to public health. The number of fish
consumption advisories and beach closings is rising each year and new threats, such as the toxic
microorganism Pfiesteria, demand effective responses.
It is estimated that $139.5 billion are still needed to construct or improve wastewater
treatment facilities to correct current water quality or public health problems. These dollars would
be used for replacing or repairing existing sewer collection systems, constructing new sewers or
interceptors, treating wastewater overflows from combined sewers, continuing needs for municipal
storm water management, and controlling nonpoint sources of pollution.
In addition, there are new technical challenges in addressing control of toxic pollutants and
the management of residual biosolids (sewage sludge). Greater concern about toxic pollutants
suggests the need for higher levels of wastewater treatment coupled with industrial pretreatment,
which in turn will generally lead to the production of greater quantities of biosolids. These higher
level processes will be more expensive to build and operate.
Restoring and Protecting America's Waters: The Clean Water Action Plan
On October 18, 1997, the 25th anniversary of the enactment of the Clean Water Act, the Vice
President called for a renewed effort to restore and protect water quality. The Vice President asked
that the Secretary of Agriculture and the Administrator of EPA, working with other affected agencies,
develop a Clean Water Action Plan that builds on clean water successes and addresses three major
goals.
— enhanced protection from public health threats posed by water pollution;
— more effective control of polluted runoff; and
— promotion of water quality protection on a watershed basis.
The Vice President specifically asked the federal agencies to establish a national consensus
on the issues highlighted in the Action Plan. Many of the elements of this Action Plan provide for
additional development of information, assessment, and dialogue. These processes will assure multiple
opportunities for input by the public before significant decisions are made. In addition to providing
opportunities for input on specific action items, the Action Plan calls for publication of reports on
overall progress of the new initiative in restoring and protecting the nation's watersheds. EPA
responded to the Vice President's call for action on February 14, 1998.
Consistent with the goals of the new Clean Water Action Plan, the Office of Wastewater
Management (OWM) has renewed its commitment to improving the quality of water in the United
States for the benefit of all citizens.
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Enhancing protection from public health threats posed by water pollution
The strong clean water standards established by the 1972 Clean Water Act and its
amendments have served the nation well. Government, industry, and the public have made the Clean
Water Act work; a renewed commitment to these baseline programs will be a key part of finishing
the cleanup of the nation's waters.
• EPA is committed to seeking an increase in the number and dollar amount of Clean Water
State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) loans used to prevent polluted runoff. In addition, OWM
has committed to substantially increase the number of states using integrated priority setting
systems, which allow states to direct CWSRF assistance to a variety of point and nonpoint
source projects based on environmental priorities. Under the Clean Water Action Plan, OWM
will guide states on the use of loan funds in support of decentralized sewage management
systems.
• The Agency's biosolids (sewage sludge) management program promotes stakeholder-based
environmentally friendly practices for managing biosolids as an important part of
environmental protection. Partnerships with stakeholders both at the national and more local
levels are being fostered to improve practice and public acceptance of biosolids recycling.
The goal is for biosolids and other similar by-products to be used in a manner that is
beneficial to agriculture while sustaining the quality of our natural resources.
• Decentralized wastewater treatment systems are those that are either constructed onsite to
serve a single home or business, or those that treat and dispose of relatively small volumes
of wastewater from a cluster of homes and businesses. When adequately managed,
decentralized systems are a cost-effective, long-term option for meeting public health and
water quality goals, particularly in less densely populated areas. Efforts under the Clean Water
Action plan include: (1) providing technical guidance on management programs, performance
standards, water conservation techniques and alternative/innovative designs for onsite
wastewater systems; (2) developing voluntary national standards for onsite system siting,
performance, design and maintenance, and (3) providing financial and technical support to
state and local programs which provide for centralized management of onsite systems,
including support of demonstration projects and providing guidance on the use of State loan
funds for onsite management systems.
More effective control of polluted runoff - a new focus
The enforceable mechanism for implementing
water pollution control requirements is the discharge
permit required under the Clean Water Act. For the
past decade, most discharge permits have been issued
by state agencies with oversight by EPA. Discharge
permits are a proven tool for reducing water pollution
and have been largely responsible for the spectacular
improvements in water quality over the past 30 years.
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However, existing permits must be reviewed and revised in a timely manner and key types of
unpermitted discharges (e.g., certain animal feeding operations, storm water discharges from small
cities and towns) must be brought into the permit program.
• The direction of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit
Program is now being focussed on storm water management including control of combined
sewer and sanitary sewer overflows. Under the Clean Water Action Plan, the storm water
program, promotes the use of best management practices, such as eliminating illicit
connections in municipalities to minimize flow of untreated sewage and other contaminants
to the nations waterways. This program also controls runoff from developed areas and from
new construction to ensure reduction in flow and movement of sediment, so as to reduce
stream bank erosion, stream channeling and massive modifications of stream habitat.
Sediment reduction also greatly reduces the cost of dredging reservoirs and navigation
channels and generates recreation benefits, such as increased fishing and swimming
opportunities and protection of spawning grounds. In conjunction with the Plan, the storm
water program also provides for a more informed public about pollution prevention measures
that can be taken to minimize storm water impacts.
• Under the Clean Water Action Plan, the Office of Wastewater Management (OWM) along
with the Department of Agriculture is developing and administering a unified strategy to
ensure that animal feeding operation (AFO) wastes are managed to minimize environmental
and public health effects. The resulting control programs will provide for improved data
collection, expanded research on effects and control measures, and increased compliance
assistance and enforcement with respect to applicable environmental laws and regulations.
The number of CWA permits issued will be significantly expanded, ensuring that such
activities as land application of animal waste are properly addressed. Obsolete regulations
will be updated and incentives will be created for voluntary implementation of measures to
protect the environment and public health.
• The Office of Surface Mining, DOT, EPA (Office of Wastewater Management) and the land
management agencies will work collectively to increase clean up of rivers and streams by
polluted coal mine drainage and abandoned hardrock mines.
• Forest roads are one of the main sources of sediment runoff on federal lands. However, these
sources are now exempt from many NPDES regulations. EPA is charged with the task of
considering whether to revise the Clean Water Act permit regulations relative to forest roads
and to develop a pilot permit program for forest roads on federal lands. This task is being
performed in consultation with other federal agencies and states.
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Promotion of water quality protection on a watershed basis
For the past 25 years, most water pollution control efforts relied on nationwide programs that
addressed the biggest sources of water pollution, such as discharges from sewage treatment plants
and factories. Today, however, there is a growing recognition of the need to better coordinate the
implementation of national programs in specific geographic areas. For water resources, watersheds
provide an appropriate geographic unit of management.
Watershed management fosters the coordinated implementation of programs to control point
source discharges, reduce polluted runoff, and protect drinking water and sensitive natural resources
such as wetlands. A watershed approach highlights opportunities to go beyond reducing chemical
contamination to think about ways to enhance the overall health of the aquatic system and preserve
biodiversity. Watershed management also fosters greater interest and involvement from the public and
provides a foundation for partnerships among government, the public, and the private sector. With
a wide array of project eligibilities, innovative uses of the CWSRF should provide broad based
financial support for many watershed based Key Actions listed in the Clean Water Action Plan.
Nonpoint Source and estuarine activities that have been or can be funded by the CWSRF include
agricultural Best Management Practices (BMPs), storm water abatement, erosion controls, corrective
actions for landfills, source water protection, wildlife habitat restoration, purchases of conservation
easements and wetlands restoration. EPA will address beach and shellfish area closings, implement
drinking water protection programs, increase the acreage of wetlands restored, implement coastal
NFS programs, establish conservation buffers on agricultural lands, reduce polluted runoff from
AFOs, define watershed priorities, support watershed restoration plans and support locally based
watershed protection efforts.
Summary
We have made a lot of progress in the past 25 years, but there is still much work to be done.
Thousands of treatment plants need to expand or upgrade their wastewater or biosolids treatment
capabilities; thousands of industries need to provide better pollution control, and thousands of failing
individual septic systems require corrective action to prevent ground water contamination. In
addition, more than 2,500 new wastewater treatment plants will be needed by the year 2008.
Municipalities will also be faced with rising demands to manage storm water more effectively, coastal
urban nonpoint source runoff, and mitigate wet weather related water quality impacts.
Today there are nearly 16,000 municipal wastewater treatment facilities, serving 190 million
people and treating approximately 32 trillion gallons of wastewater each day. Nearly 98 percent of
all municipal wastewater treatment plants are providing secondary or more stringent levels of
treatment. The percent of water bodies meeting water quality standards has almost doubled since
1972 from 36 to 63 percent. Secondary treatment removes about 85 percent of the organic matter
in sewage by making use of the bacteria in it. This is a significant improvement compared to 5
percent of the municipal plants that provided secondary treatment in 1972.
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Federal, state, local governments and industry
have invested approximately $200 billion to improve «g
treatment plants and pretreatment facilities during the |j
same period. This investment in construction of ^
wastewater collection and treatment facilities has s-,r
yielded significant gains in the level of treatment and in
pollution reduction.
It will continue to take the combined efforts of federal,
state and local governments as well as environmental
organizations, industry and the general public to reach
the goals of the 1972 Act for "fishable . . . swimmable
waters" in the future.
By implementing the Clean Water Action Plan, OWM and its partner organizations will bring
significant improvements to water quality in the future, thus providing a better quality of life for
citizens through improving recreational opportunities, promoting economic prosperity, ensuring safe
drinking water, and protecting public health.
Further Information
For additional information on protecting your environment write:
Office of Wastewater Management
United States Environmental Protection Agency
Mail Code (4204)
401 MStreet, S.W.
Washington, B.C. 20460
Web Site: http://www.epa.gov/owm/
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