... national standards for all states and tribes. The EPA can issue sanctions and take other steps to assist the states and tribes in reaching desired levels of environmental quality. The Agency works to assess environmental conditions and to identify, understand, and solve current and future environmental problems. (EPA website) Thus, one area the EPA covers is the prevention of water contamination. The Clean Water Act of 1972 exclusively protects the surface water quality. The act does not deal directly with ground water or with water quality issues. The Clean water act employs a variety of regulatory and non-regulatory tools to reduce direct pollutant discharges into waterways, finance municipal wastewater treatment facilities, and manage polluted runoff. The act has evolved over the years from subjective approach of program-by-program, source-by-source or pollutant-by-pollutant approach to more holistic watershed-based approach. Under the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency works with various federal, state ...

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