By many measures, the Clean Water Act has fulfilled the ambition of its drafters. The sewage discharges that were commonplace in the 1960s are rare. The number of waters meeting quality goals has doubled. Given the successes described above, how has the Clean Water Act done so poorly despite doing so well? Much of the answer lies in the law’s narrow focus. We have made great progress in controlling industrial pipes that discharge waste, but other major sources remain largely unregulated. To gain sufficient congressional support from farm states in 1972, the Clean Water Act largely exempted runoff from agricultural fields and irrigation ditches.

while there is still a long way to go for many rivers, it is encouraging to know that some environmental trends are going in the right direction. as far as i can tell, this success was mostly passive, stopping new pollution and letting sedimentation take care of it. an active approach would have much more impressive results.

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