Clean Water Act

This is a quick, practice-focused guide to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, commonly known as the Clean Water Act, which is the primary federal statute regulating water pollution for the protection of the country's water resources. Written by experienced legal practitioners, this concise guide offers lawyers, government staff, consultants, and other interested individuals with an overview of the CWA's complex framework of federal and state controls. The authors explain the statute and the 1972 Amendments that created a system of permits and regulations to govern the discharge of pollutants into the nation's waters and publicly owned treatment works, focusing on these uniform standards and their implementation and enforcement. In addition to the historical background, topics include the NPDES permitting process; technology-based standards; water-quality-based effluent limitations; publicly owned treatment works (POTW); regulation of wetlands; discharges of oil and other hazardous substances; wet-weather discharges from point sources; reducing nonpoint source pollution; and enforcement.