Clean Water for People and Wildlife

Clean water is a necessity for life on this planet, including game & fish. But today more than 40% of America's waters are unsafe to swim in, or to eat the fish that come from these waters.

Yet even that is an improvement. Prior to the Clean Water Act of 1972, more than half of America's waters were unsafe. Thirty years of the Clean Water Act has improved the quality of America's streams, rivers, lakes, and wetlands.

Today those improvements are at risk, due to a combination of recent White House and Supreme Court decisions that have chipped away the protections of the Clean Water Act. Waters not navigable by boat, that are dry for part of the year, or are isolated from other waters are now vulnerable to pollution.

Beyond concerns about game & fish, these changes also have serious implications for people's drinking water. In fact, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, more than 90% of surface water protection areas for drinking water are fed by streams that do not flow year-round-exactly the kinds of waterways that are losing Clean Water Act protections.

Clean Water Act of 1972 Factsheet
Sierra Club Clean Water page

Information how changes to Clean Water Act affect people:

• Keeping Our Nation's Public Drinking Water Safe Report, Sierra Club 2006
• State by state breakdown of public water vulnerability, Sierra Club 2006
• Reckless Abandon, Sierra Club 2004

Information how changes to Clean Water Act affect game & fish:

• Where Rivers are Born, Sierra Club 2007
• Minnesota Great Lakes factsheet, Sierra Club 2008

Information from outside of the Sierra Club:

• Letter from sportsmen groups to Congress, April 2008
• Imperiled Treasures, Southwest Water Report, February 2008
• Letter from New Mexico's Environment Department, Feburary 2008
• Water and U.S. Forest Service, January 2000