Clean Water Act: Difference between revisions

During the 1880s and 1890s, Congress directed USACE to prevent dumping and filling in the nation's harbors, and the program was vigorously enforced.<ref name="CoEEnv">United States Army Corps of Engineers, Washington, DC. [http://www.usace.army.mil/About/History/BriefHistoryoftheCorps/EnvironmentalActivities.aspx "Environmental Activities."] ''Brief History of the Corps.'' Accessed 2013-10-19.</ref> Congress first addressed water pollution issues in the [[Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899]],<ref>Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899, Ch. 425, Sec. 9, 30 Stat. 1151. {{USC|33|401}}. March 3, 1899</ref> giving the Corps the authority to regulate most kinds of obstructions to navigation, including hazards resulting from effluents. Portions of this law remain in effect, including Section 13, the so-called [[Refuse Act]].  In 1910, USACE used the act to object to a proposed sewer in [[New York City]], but a court ruled that pollution control was a matter left to the states alone. Speaking to the 1911 National Rivers and Harbors Congress, the chief of the Corps, [[William Herbert Bixby|William H. Bixby]], suggested that modern treatment facilities and prohibitions on dumping "should either be made compulsory or at least encouraged everywhere in the United States."<ref name="CoEEnv"/> Most legal analysts have concluded that the 1899 law did not address environmental impacts from pollution, such as sewage or industrial discharges. However, there were several pollution enforcement cases in the 1960s and 1970s where the law was cited for broader pollution control objectives.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Franz |first=Andrew |title=Crimes Against Water: The Rivers and Harbors Act of 1899 |date=Summer 2010 |journal=Tulane Environmental Law Journal |volume=23 |issue=2 |pages=255–278 |jstor=43294085}}</ref>