The Clean Water Act is important because it began to regulate the discharge of pollutants into water sources that flow into surface waters such as lakes, rivers, streams, and ponds. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) put in place permits to control the discharge if industries planned to pipe their discharge into surface waters. This act helps to improve the water quality for communities that live near these surface waters and works to decrease the exposures to toxic chemicals that come from this discharge. It is important as public health professionals that we continue to uphold this act and make sure industries are acquiring permits and are regularly regulating the discharge.
I think updates to the clean water act should include policies that do not allow businesses to wrongfully profit off of water. If it were up to me, water should be free for public consumption because it is a necessity for life the same as oxygen. We don't charge for oxygen so why water? I think think all water organizations should be non-profit and for-profit organizations like bottled water companies should only advertise for convenience of use...not say how terrible local water is. It seems like false advertisement. The only funding allocated towards water treatment would be from the tax-payer directly. Not private streams of revenue.
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