Federal Water Pollution Control Act

Clean Water Act

Other short titles	Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972
Long title	An Act to amend the Federal Water Pollution Control Act.
Acronyms (colloquial)	CWA
Enacted by	the 92nd United States Congress
Effective	October 18, 1972
Citations
Public law	92-500
Statutes at Large	86 Stat. 816
Codification
Acts amended	Federal Water Pollution Control Act
Titles amended	33 U.S.C.: Navigable Waters
U.S.C. sections created	33 U.S.C. §§ 1251–1387
U.S.C. sections amended	33 U.S.C. ch. 23 § 1151
Legislative history
Introduced in the Senate as S. 2770 by Edmund Muskie (D–ME) on October 28, 1971 Committee consideration by Senate Public Works Committee Passed the Senate on November 2, 1971 (86-0) Passed the House on March 29, 1972 (passed) Reported by the joint conference committee on October 4, 1972; agreed to by the House on October 4, 1972 (366-11) and by the Senate on October 4, 1972 (74-0) Vetoed by President Richard Nixon on October 17, 1972 Overridden by the Senate on October 17, 1972 (52-12) Overridden by the House and became law on October 18, 1972 (247-23)
Major amendments
Clean Water Act of 1977; Water Quality Act of 1987
United States Supreme Court cases
EI duPont de Nemours & Co. v. Train, 430 U.S. 112 (1977) EPA v. Nat'l Crushed Stone Assn., 449 U.S. 64 (1980)

EI duPont de Nemours & Co. v. Train, 430 U.S. 112 (1977)

The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal law in the United States governing water pollution. Its objective is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters by preventing point and nonpoint pollution sources, providing assistance to publicly owned treatment works for the improvement of wastewater treatment, and maintaining the integrity of wetlands. It is one of the United States' first and most influential modern environmental laws. As with many other major U.S. federal environmental statutes, it is administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in coordination with state governments. Its implementing regulations are codified at 40 C.F.R. Subchapters D, N, and O (Parts 100-140, 401-471, and 501-503).

Technically, the name of the law is the Federal Water Pollution Control Act. The first FWPCA was enacted in 1948, but took on its modern form when completely rewritten in 1972 in an act entitled the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments of 1972. Major changes have subsequently been introduced via amendatory legislation including the Clean Water Act of 1977 and the Water Quality Act of 1987.

The Clean Water Act does not directly address groundwater contamination. Groundwater protection provisions are included in the Safe Drinking Water Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, and the Superfund act.

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