The Clean Water Act was passed in 1972 as a means to curb pollution and protect America’s lakes, rivers and coastal waters.  At the time, more than half of the nation’s waterways had fallen into such poor condition that recreational activities such as swimming and fishing were deemed unsafe.  The Clean Water Act has been instrumental in improving the health of rivers, lakes, and coastal waters. It has prevented pollution from entering our waterways and provided safe and healthy recreation for swimming and fishing. This landmark legislation ensured that all Americans have access to clean, pollution-free drinking water.  However, we all must do our part to care for this natural resource. Keeping our water clean helps to protect and restore our waterways, including the Chesapeake Bay.

World Water Monitoring Day is an international education and outreach program that builds public awareness and involvement in protecting water resources around the world by engaging citizens to conduct basic monitoring of their local water bodies.

The 40th anniversary of the Clean Water Act will officially be celebrated on October 18, 2012.

• The Clean Water Act has been instrumental in improving the health of rivers, lakes, and coastal waters. It has prevented pollution from entering our waterways, and provided safe and healthy recreation for swimming, fishing and clean drinking water.
• Nonpoint Source Pollution is one of the major contributors to the degradation of Maryland’s waterways and the violation of water quality standards. 

• To date, more than $64 million in Federal funding has been appropriated under Section 106 of the Clean Water Act to supplement Maryland’s state funding for water pollution control programs including permitting and enforcement, the development and monitoring of water quality standards and TMDLs for Maryland’s waterways and the management of these programs.
• MDE oversees Maryland’s Clean Water State Revolving Loan Fund, a fund of over $2 billion for use in low-interest loans to finance water quality projects large and small across Maryland. The fund has received nearly $900 million in Federal grants in connection with programs the Clean Water Act set in motion.
• In 2010, working with Maryland and all the Bay watershed states, the EPA established the Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load, the largest TMDL since the CWA originated the TMDL assessment as a pollution control measure.
• The Watershed Implementation Plans (WIPs) submitted by watershed states to the EPA spell out reduction plans for the pollutants the Bay TMDL targets and timetables for their completion. In collaboration with Maryland local governments and stakeholders, MDE developed Phase II of Maryland’s WIP, approved by the EPA this year.
• You can help protect water quality by knowing and reducing the contaminants associated with nonpoint source pollution such as:
  • Fertilizers, herbicides, and incesticides from agricultural lands and residential areas;
  • Gasoline, oil, grease and chemicals from urban runoff;
  • Sediment from construction sites, croplands and forestlands and eroding streambanks;
  • Acid drainage from abandoned mines;
  • Bacteria and nutrients from livestock, pet wastes and septic systems;
  • Air pollution that deposits in waterways is also a source of nonpoint source pollution.

         --Robert M. Summers, Secretary, Maryland Department of the Environment

• World Water Monitoring Challenge

• 40th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act
• EPA's 40th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act

Samantha Kappalman
Samantha.Kappalman@maryland.gov

Jay Apperson
Jay.Apperson@maryland.gov

(410) 537-3003