The Clean Water Act, which applied to the surface waters of the
United States, went beyond protection and sought restoration of
our nation’s waterways. Restoration of polluted waterways was
a relatively new concept in 1972. Pennsylvania’s Clean Streams
Law, passed in 1937 to protect “clean” waters from becoming
polluted, did not require that polluted waters be restored.
Nearly thirty years passed before the Clean Streams Law was
amended to include the goal “to reclaim and restore to a clean
unpolluted condition every stream in Pennsylvania that is
presently polluted.” Pennsylvania’s Clean Streams Law was
further amended in 1970 to state that the discharge of materials
contributing to pollution was against public policy and
constituted a public nuisance.
The Clean Water Act provides for the delegation of authority
to states. In 1978, the EPA determined that Pennsylvania’s
Clean Streams Law met the minimum requirements of the Clean
Water Act and delegated to the Commonwealth the power to
implement the provisions of the federal law. Pennsylvania
regulations meet and in many respects exceed federal law. The
Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is
designated as the state agency with authority to enforce the
powers of the Clean Water Act, however municipal
governments play a key role protecting water quality and in
meeting the water quality goals of the Clean Water Act.
Like the 1899 Rivers and Harbors Act and the 1972 Clean
Water Act, laws protecting water quality have generally
originated at the federal level and primarily addressed point
source pollution, leaving the regulation of nonpoint source
pollution to state governments. Water quantity and water supply
protections have also been left primarily to the states. By
contrast, zoning and land use management decisions have
generally been left to the control of local government.
In Pennsylvania, local governments, or municipal
corporations, include cities, boroughs, incorporated towns, and
townships of the first or second class. Each of these local
government structures is a creation of the state and “may
exercise any power or perform any function not denied by this
Constitution, by its home rule charter or by the General
Assembly at any time.”
Express powers, such as the power to
enact zoning provisions that protect public health and safety,
preserve natural, historic, and agricultural resources, and
prevent damage from flooding can also be exercised by
Pennsylvania’s local governments.
Guberment regs gone wild....:-o
Thank the pollies (with some foresight) for doing the right thing.
Decades later, we are seeing some of the positive results, IMHO.
