Abstract
Starting the cleanup of America's rivers, lakes, and streams was easy. In the 1970s, nearly any action to control pollution yielded improvements in water quality. Now, commercial sources of pollution—those that are readily identified by effluent pipes—are fairly tightly controlled. Yet many stretches of the nation's waterways remain unsuitable for fishing, swimming, or use as a drinking water supply. This is in large part the result of runoff from roads and urban areas, farms, and timber operations—so-called nonpoint sources of water pollution. In August 1999, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a regulation instructing states to come up with plans for cleaning up waters that remain polluted (C&EN, Aug. 23, 1999, page 10). That proposal has generated a hailstorm of criticism from states, industry, agriculture, and the forestry sector and thousands of written comments to the agency. During the past five weeks, the House and Senate have held four hearings devoted solely to this issue. In ...
Published Version
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