Wildlife, Water Quality and the Public Trust Doctrine: A Means of Enforcing Agricultural Nonpoint Source Pollution Management Plans

Abstract

Even though the Clean Water Act has proven successful in many respects, it has failed to properly address agricultural nonpoint source water pollution. This lack of sufficient legislation has left our nation’s waters polluted and has detrimentally affected much of the wildlife that depend on these waters for survival. In an effort to prevent further deterioration of our water systems, the public should consider using the public trust doctrine as a means of requiring state and local agencies to consider the public’s interests in wildlife and water quality when developing, regulating, and reevaluating nonpoint source pollution control plans.