Statewide Iowa — October 18th marks 50 years since passage of the federal Clean Water Act, a landmark environmental law which created the first national standards for water quality.
It stemmed from public outcry over widespread pollution from cities and industry. University of Iowa law professor Shannon Roesler says there have been legal battles over the scope of the law ever since. Earlier this month, the US Supreme Court heard arguments in a case challenging protections for wetlands.
Roesler says Iowa’s current water quality problems are tied to the original structure of the Clean Water Act. When it was passed in 1972, some cities and industrial plants were releasing raw sewage and untreated waste into lakes and rivers.
Professor David Cwiertny, at the UI’s Center for Health Effects of Environmental Contamination, says that kind of pollution is now largely under control. Instead, one of the main challenges for Iowa water is agricultural runoff, which was left out of the Clean Water Act.
Fertilizer runoff from farm fields is exempt under the law, and has become a major contributor to nutrient pollution in Iowa lakes and rivers. Cwiertny says legal battles over the reach of the Clean Water Act started as soon as it was passed.
