It will ensure that technical, educational, and related assistance is provided to those who own private grazing lands. Applicants submit offers in such a manner as the Secretary prescribes. Enacted in 1972, the Clean Water Act responded to growing public outrage over serious water pollution problems, such as the Pfiesteria outbreak in tributaries of the Chesapeake Bay, with ambitious new programs for water quality improvement that substantially expanded prior laws. While those dates have passed, efforts to attain the goals continue. The 1972 legislation authorized a major program of Federal grant assistance for municipal sewage treatment plant construction.
States play a key role in implementing the Clean Water Act.
States, with support from EPA, set water quality standards for the waters of the State. States also monitor the condition of waters and identify waters not meeting water quality standards. And States develop plans to restore the quality of waters not meeting standards. EPA and the States share responsibility for enforcement of requirements in discharge permits. Other important activities authorized by the Act include the development of State programs to control pollution from nonpoint or diffuse pollution sources, issuance by the Army Corps of Engineers of permits for activities relating to wetlands, and protection of the Great Lakes, Chesapeake Bay, and estuaries.