Celebrating 50 Years of the Clean Water Act

For the past 50 years, Clean Water Action has worked to uphold and strengthen the Clean Water Act and make sure the Act works the way it’s supposed to. Clean Water Action works every day to ensure everyone has access to safe water for drinking, fishing, and swimming and to help improve water quality and make sure our most vulnerable communities have access to clean water as well. 

That’s why your support is so critical right now. As a non-profit organization, Clean Water Action relies on donations to do this incredible work. Today, to talk more about the Clean Water Act and some of the clean water initiatives you can support today are Thea Louis, Clean Water Action’s national water projects coordinator and Sean Jackson, national water projects manager. 

Make a special gift to support our podcast today at www.cleanwater.org/donate

Transcript

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Five years is not going to be enough investment to get us out of this massive infrastructure hole we have. We have very old pipe and very new problems and dangerous problems coming up in water. We have flooding on the East coast and droughts on the west coast, and our infrastructure is not set up for the, um, impacts of climate change yet. So we need to get going. Hello everyone. Welcome to We All Live Downstream, a Clean Water Action Podcast. In each episode, we will be interviewing, leading environmental and clean water activists about their work in the field. We'll dive deep into topics from drinking water and climate change to environmental justice, plastic pollution, and toxic chemicals. I'm your host, Jenny Vickers, the National Communications Manager for Clean Water Action. We're actually kicking off a very special year in fundraising podcast today. Focus on everyone's favorite subject, clean water, which we all rely on to live, work and thrive. This year, we are celebrating the 50th anniversary, the Clean Water Act and Clean Water Actions 50th birthday. In 1972, our founder of the late David w helped a craft passage of the landmark clean water law. We've come a long way in improving waterways across the country. Back in the sixties, some may call rivers caught on fire. Due to industrial polluters being able to dump freely into our water, the Clean Water Act changed everything, and we've seen incredible improvements. We have a long way to go today. There are still communities across our country, examples like Flint, Jackson, Mississippi, Baltimore, and Los Angeles, who still struggle sometimes to make sure they have clean water. For the past 50 years, clean Water Action has worked to uphold and strengthen the Clean Water Act and make sure the act works the way it's supposed to. We fight every day to ensure everyone has access to safe water for drinking, fishing, and swimming, and to help improve water quality, make sure our most vulnerable communities have access to clean water as well. That's why your support is so critical right now. As a nonprofit organization, clean Water Action relies on donations to do this incredible work today to talk more about the Clean Water Act and our 50th celebration and some of the current Clean water initiatives you can support today, our Thea Louie Clean Water Actions, national Water Projects Coordinator, and Sean Jackson, national Water Projects Manager. Welcome to We All Live Downstream. Thanks for being here today. Hi, thank you. Hi, nice to be here. So, how is our country doing, first of all, with water, would you say? Um, well, I, I can start with that. Uh, I think that the level of improvements that have happened from the Clean Water Act specifically have been really astounding and can't be understated. Uh, the level of water quality improvements in our rivers, lakes, and streams, um, have improved drastically throughout the years. Um, and we can track that. Uh, obviously things we all remember the Cuyahoga burning, or if you weren't alive at the time, you, uh, certainly heard about it. And we definitely don't have burning rivers quite as often as we did then. And we have level of water quality improvements that you can't really even, um, account for on such a drastic level. Uh, levels of ammonia, nitrogen, dissolved oxygen are all, um, improving drastically. Uh, but there is, um, room for improvement as always. Uh, specifically regarding how we manage our water infrastructure. So the American Society of Civil Engineers, that's a, um, organization that represents the, uh, engineers that work on infrastructure throughout the country. Uh, often grade every year, the infrastructure, um, and how we're doing. Uh, so water does not do well, typically. Um, specifically the three systems of our water, drinking water, storm water, and waste water, uh, all have a C minus D and d plus, um, respectively. Uh, we don't want that level of water<laugh>. We, we don't wanna, uh, be failing in our water systems. And, uh, all of those things can be improved. And quite frankly, drinking water probably is worse off than we realize because we don't even really understand to the degree that lead is poisoning our water systems and our communities. So we really need to improve that. Um, that is probably the primary way where area that I work here at Clean Water Action in trying to improve our water infrastructure systems. And I'll pass it to Thea for how she's working to improve that. Yeah, thanks, Sean. So I definitely wanna echo everything that you said and would just say, like, as Rad Fox Assistant Administrator to EPAs Office of Water might say it is Water's Moment. And this year celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, we can really recognize a lot of those accomplishments that have come from the implementation of the Clean Water Act. With that being said, there are also obviously some issues, especially surrounding environmental justice and critical water infrastructure, which we will definitely get into a little bit more later on. But overall, and on the positive side, we have an administration that is taking strides to really center environmental justice and make sure that these foundational environmental laws, like the Clean Water Act, are working for everyone. And so that's really promising. So what role does Clean Water Action actually play in ensuring the Clean Water Act remains intact and effective? Yeah, I can start off with that Clean Water Action. Like a lot of other non-profit advocacy based environmental organizations really takes a center stage in making sure that our environmental laws are working for everyone. So whether it's advocating for the Clean Water Act, going to a rally, trying to draw support for candidates who are in favor of environmental policy that works for everyone, that is really where I see Clean Water Action having a really important, uh, role in ensuring that the Clean Water Act remains intact and also effective, especially with those outcomes, so that we can see just an equitable water quality and environmental outcomes for everybody. Yeah, absolutely. And, um, especially, uh, the ways that we work here at Clean Water Action, um, is really to be that one stop shop for, uh, water advocacy, um, in the country. So I think we, how I like to think about it is we engage in, uh, cleaning up our water systems in three, um, distinct ways. Uh, so first of all, we are a great source for outreach that's reaching everyone in the country that relies on their water. Uh, we can speak sort of the truth regardless of our primary, um, re regardless of, excuse me, regardless of political, uh, current political trends, election results, news cycles. Um, and that's primary because our primary customer is, uh, water and the people that rely on water. And so how we, um, speak is, you know, for a fact that everything that we're talking about is in the vein of trying to improve water quality, um, for everyone. Uh, secondly, when we work, we work in advocacy. So that's, we engage all levels of the regulatory and legislative, um, world. Uh, in regard to water policy. Our job is to know about clean water, and we meet with policy makers, regulatory, uh, actors, and we discuss how to get that clean water. Uh, we are, we're out there trying to beat the pavement, and the goal is to ensure that water is safer today than it was yesterday. So when we see threats to the Clean Water Act or any other regulatory standard, uh, for improving water quality, that's where we're working to advocate. And then the third space, um, that I think we work well is engagement. And that's, um, plugging the holes and making sure that people out there that care about their clean water and are well informed from our other places, uh, are having their voices amplified. So we're reaching out to communities and making sure that their, uh, problems are heard and, uh, addressed. So those are the primary ways that we're trying to improve our water quality, but everything that we do is within that, uh, space, trying to improve that, uh, water quality for everyone. Yeah. Well, I, you both hit the nail on the head. I mean, I can't think of a, a better organization than Clean Water Action to do this kind of work right now, especially at this time. And, um, as we approach the end of the year, it's, it's a really critical time for non-profits like ours to, um, you know, have some support. Um, as a nonprofit, we do rely on, on our members and supporters to keep our engines running. So you could do a quick donation right now if you'd like to at cleanwater.org/donate. Um, we appreciate all of your support and especially a support for this great work. Um, I did mention earlier that some communities across with access to clean water. Can you tell me how can we use the Clean Water Act to protect our drinking water? Yeah, I can definitely start with that one. The Clean Water Act is really an essential and great tool for protecting water quality across the nation. Like the title of this podcast says, we all live downstream. And so the actions that are taken in one place, even if it's a different state or different territory, can really impact communities that are miles and miles away. So by using the Clean Water Act, effectively, pollutants into bodies of water are managed and monitored so that we can maintain these highest set standards. The Clean Water Act is really more concerned with nation's water bodies and controlling what we do to disrupt them. Whereas the Safe Drinking Water Act concerns itself with our country's public water systems, and that's what treats and provides the drinking water to the vast majority of people. So somewhat, unfortunately, these two really Foundry environmental laws are somewhat siloed or can be siloed in policy making, when really they should be acting as siblings so that we can see the most effective and equitable clean water solutions for all. So the best way that Clean Water Act, uh, has improved our water quality has been by affecting, um, point source pollution, as we call it. So that's meaning when a single source of pollution can be traced, uh, to polluting waterways. One area that the Clean Water Act has not always had the best way of improving our water systems is, um, through non-point source pollution. So that's pollution that comes from storm water or from rain events, that kinds of things hard to tra trace where the pollutant is coming from. That's one area that the Clean Water Act can be improved and should be improved. But the amount improvement we've had just from working on that point source pollution thing, that's wastewater improvements and, um, facility improvements, hospitals, that sort of thing, when we find a polluter and we know exactly who's doing it, the Clean Water Act is really a hammer for the federal government to come down on those polluters and stop it. And we've had, as I said in the earlier, we, uh, beginning of the podcast, we've had such improvement just from working through that lens. Uh, there's been almost every metric you can think of in our, in our waters, our rivers, our lakes, our streams has been improved. Every major river in the United States, that's one of the major tributaries has improved in very real and measurable ways since, uh, the last 50 years. So the Clean Water Act has been one of the most important tools we've had in doing that. And we're here at Clean Water Action trying to find, plug those last few holes so that we can just make sure every, um, everybody has clean water for, um, for the foreseeable future. I know you mentioned earlier you work on infrastructure. Um, Congress has made an incredible investment to address water infrastructure in this country. Sean, you mentioned earlier you work on infrastructure. Can you talk a little bit more about your work? Yeah, absolutely. Um, so the last year, uh, just about around now, last year we had the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure, investment and Jobs Act, also known as I I J A or the bil depending on who you talk to. Um, and that has really and will be, uh, so transformative to our water infrastructure that I of this call. We wanna get those grades up and first of all, the main thing we need is better and more resources, uh, to do so. So the, uh, I A J A as I mentioned, um, is the largest investment in water infrastructure we've had in this, in, in history. Um, and it's done so through something called the State Revolving Fund Programs Program Program. Uh, these are two programs managed by the Clean Water Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act. So that's a bit of that, um, relationship that Thea mentioned earlier, uh, that we should be having in more things. Um, and both of those programs are a, uh, partnership program between the federal government and the state's tribes and territories. Now, typically, this is a lending program. When somebody comes and they have a project that they need funded, they can get a very low interest loan through these state revolving fund programs. However, through the new, um, uh, investment that 49% of the, these new fundings from the federal government, uh, can be given and will be given through, uh, low, uh, 0% interest loans or grants. And that's to tie into, uh, the Biden Administration's Justice 40 Initiative, which, uh, is relevant to everything that they're going to be doing. And that states that 40% of that of investments have justice, environmental justice communities. So this is where I come in. Environmental Justice communities is a loaded term under the Safe Drinking Water Act. Every state gets to define exactly what environmental justice community means. Uh, that can be problematic because as you can guess, some states do a really good job and STEM states do not. So Clean Water Action is trying to work with all the states when they put out their plans throughout the year to make sure that we have really good, uh, definitions for disadvantaged communities to make sure that everybody's getting the kinds of investments that they want and need from this, uh, historic bill. Uh, so typically a bad program would only involve medium household income, but we want, uh, programs that, uh, think of all sorts of things across the demographic specter. Uh, so that would be race, age, historic disinvestment, whatever you, what have you, uh, redlining. So, um, there's, uh, a great need for that, and that's what we're working on. But we're also making sure that, uh, communities that have historically not been paid attention to through our water infrastructure programs, um, are receiving the kinds of technical assistance they really hard time just finishing an application. Sometimes they need financial help and how to write a grant. Sometimes they need help in, uh, engineering plans, and we're trying to make those connections for them and work, uh, within the states to make sure that everybody is able to access this really important funding. And also to make sure that the funding succeeds, because quite frankly, uh, five years is not going to be enough investment to get us out of this massive infrastructure hole. We have. We have very old PIP and very new problems and dangerous problems coming up in water. We have flooding on the East Coast and droughts on the West coast, and our infrastructure is not set up for the, um, impacts of climate change yet. So we need to get going and we need to get <laugh>, uh, get everything updated. And, uh, it, I mean, there's lead line replacements as we all, I mean, I can talk about this for a, a long time about all the things we need to get happening, but, um, the important thing is that, uh, um, we're out there and we are beaten the pavement and making sure that everybody can, uh, effectively receive this funding so we can start getting out of this hole that we're in. Yeah, and it, it sounds like there's so much work ahead. I know this year has been our 50th birthday and 50th anniversary of the Koon Act. We've been reflecting a lot about the past and the past 50 years and how, how far we've come. But as Sean just mentioned, we have a lot of work to do and a lot of work ahead. And Clean Water Action is a people powered organization. People are at the center and front of everything we do. Um, so if you'd like to become a member or make a donation, just visit cleanwater.org/donate today, um, to help out and, and there's a lot of great work ahead, and we want you, with us every step of the way. The, you are working on some exciting stuff too. Um, Cleanwater Actions Equity Project, can you tell us about this project and some of your goals? Definitely. So for some time now, and honestly since the Clean Water Act was founded, since Clean Water Action was founded, there's been this really strong interest that we've had organizationally in really examining and looking at the equity implications of the Clean Water Act and its outcome. So what that means is how is the Clean Water Act being implemented? Is it working effectively and does are its outcomes really equitable across all sectors so that it meets these goals? Fishable, swimable Waters for everybody. Like I mentioned earlier, there's an administration that recognizes this importance of equity and justice in clean water. And so that support has really helped to push our organizational capacity forward so that we can advance this research that I'm doing about the successes and the opportunities for improvement with the Clean Water Act and it's implementation, this is something that frontline and Fence Line communities have led the way on for years. And so, as part of Clean Water Action, I'm very excited to be a part of this and see these goals really being realized. Um, right now I am delving a little bit deeper into the text of the Clean Water Act, as well as some of its related programs. So things like the National Pollutant Discharge and Elimination System, which essentially is Clean Water Act permits, and really focusing this research on a, with a specific eye for environmental justice, for water equity, and for water justice. So I have been compiling research for a few months now to culminate in a broader water pollution and justice project that is really aiming to show some of the inequities that the Clean Water Act has, but then also to provide some suggestions on what could actually be done better. So we're not just identifying the problems or the opportunities for improvement, but we're also providing some suggestions of like, okay, here we've looked through the Clean Water Act, we've looked through its related programs, identified some of the issue areas that people and communities are facing, and providing some suggestions on where we can provide helping hand or just support strengthening the Clean Water Act in really being enacted in the way that it's written. So what steps could EPA regional offices, for example, take to ensure that the Clean Water Act permits in their region are being implemented fairly? Or what does federal administration need to provide additional support or guidance on when it comes to Clean Water Act operations? So in identifying some of the weaker points of how the Clean Water Act has been enacted in 50 years, hopefully we can start to see some real change and keep growing on this momentum that the Biden administration, along with really that, that attention and drive that has been pushed by Frontline and Fence Line or environmental justice communities. We really want to continue growing that momentum so that we can see the Clean Water Act work equitably, see the outcomes, really drive the importance of clean water and make sure that everyone has access to a basic human right, which is clean water. Well, this is incredible and important work that both of you are doing. I just wanna quickly thank you for all the work that you're doing, and I'm so excited for what's ahead. I'm sure everyone listening right now, um, wants to get involved. I know if I was listening, I would wanna get involved in our campaigns and find out how I could, I could help and support. What would you both say to someone considering becoming a member or donating today? Well, I, I, I always tell everyone that I talk to about my, uh, job is, the best part about my job is that I get to wake up every day and wear a white hat. Uh, the sole reason for Clean Water Actions existence is to improve our water quality. Uh, and the fact that I get to do that and to help people's health improve and help the environment improve, um, for a living is, uh, just, uh, wonderful. And it's, it's great to be a part of something important. Um, but I, uh, there's a lot of threats to water quality, and not everyone has historically had access to clean water. And it's important that we and, uh, everyone at Clean Water Action helps to try to change that with everyone else, um, from the outside helping. So, uh, frankly, there are people out there that, uh, do not want the Clean Water Act, uh, to exist. It, it is easier for them to make money when they can easily contaminate the waterways with nothing stopping them from doing it. Uh, I'm not trying to create a boogeyman or anything like that. It's just a fact they exist And, um, here at Clean Water Action, we're trying to get in their way. And I am love the fact that I get to be able to get in their way, <laugh>, uh, and the fact that we get to work and try to stop that we want, uh, clean water to be ever present for everyone. And it's the principle we're founded on, and it's the sole reason for our existence. And I I think that they know we're the good guys. It's why we've had the lights on for the last 50 years. Uh, as I said before, we have two clients, water and the people that rely on water, and I think we have a pretty strong track record of serving those clients well. And, um, frankly, if I were not working for Clean Water Action, I, uh, would still be supporting Clean Water Action. I supported Clean Water Action prior to working here. It's still set up on my Smile dot Amazon Donate <laugh> program. And, uh, I think the work that we do is vitally important and I would not be here otherwise. Yeah, I absolutely agree. Clean Water Action is really an organization that is absolutely driven by people power. So we can't do the work that we do advocating for cleaner water and healthy environments more broadly without the support of our shared community. So I absolutely agree with Sean, that support of Clean Water Action is essential, and we're so thankful for all of our, uh, members, and I love working here. Well, thank you both so much for joining today. Um, yeah, I agree with both of you and I've worked at Clean Water Action for, um, well over a decade and just over the years, getting to work directly with communities, whether through like when I was canvassing and talking to people door to door, or now communicating with our members via email and on social media and, you know, making phone calls during the elections, you know, all the ways that we reach out and support people, like you mentioned earlier at rallies, uh, lobby days, um, you know, we're getting back since the pandemic into hosting more in person events. So I just think the whole trajectory of the organization as a grassroots, um, organization founded, you know, in the grassroots and then sticking to it, you know, we are still a grassroots organization. Um, and I just really appreciate both of you for your work and advocacy and joining us today. And everyone listening, thank you for joining us. Um, we're approaching our year end. You're probably gonna be getting a lot of emails and phone calls asking for support. Um, it's an important time to support an organization like Clean Water Action because we are, um, uh, you know, a great family to be a part of. Um, so as a nonprofit, we do rely on, on donations and support. Um, you can make a special gift today. It can be $5, it, it can be $10. Um, it could be a recurring gift, it could be small and large. We appreciate everything, um, that comes our way, honestly, clean water.org/donate. Become a member, become a supporter, join our email list, subscribe to this podcast. Any way that you wanna support, um, is appreciated. Um, you could contact your legislators on an issue that you care about. So whatever way you wanna support, we wanna say thank you and thanks to our existing supporters for being here and listening. Um, is there anything else, Thea and Sean, you wanna add before we end today? I don't have anything other than I appreciate you, Jenny, for putting this together, and I appreciate everyone for engaging and, uh, being our eyes and ears out there. And, uh, we, we can't do this with not just financial support. We can't do this without, um, just community support. So thank you. Yeah, I would just say thank you to Jenny for putting on this podcast. Thanks to Clean Water Action, the organization for supporting us, and most importantly, thank you to our supporters and our members for continuing to support Clean Water Action, continuing to engage around these issues and do advocacy on the front lines as well. That's what really drives us in what keeps us together. So it's a really crucial time. There's a lot going on in the world, and making sure that we have clean, fresh water for everyone is absolutely essential to just keeping our livelihoods going. So thanks to everyone who supports. Thank you. Bye everybody.