Environmental Analysis

Total Maximum Daily Load - Getting to the Point of Pollution

Since the Clean Water Act (CWA) was passed in 1972, environmentalists have worked to clean and protect our rivers and lakes from industrial pollution. Now that almost 30 years have passed, much has been accomplished. But we are only now beginning to understand that there is much more to be done.

Much Work Remains
States and territories have identified over 20,000 individual river segments, lakes and estuaries across America as polluted. These polluted waters include approximately 300,000 miles of river and shoreline and approximately 5 million acres of lakes - polluted mostly by sedimentation, nutrients, and harmful microorganisms.