Clean Water Act (1972) – This law serves as the backbone of many other water protection rules that came after its enactment and provides two key regulatory sections to meet water quality standards. On overview and links to more Information on TMDLs and NPDES regulations is provided. 

Section 303 requires States to establish Water Quality Standards for navigable waters that meet federal expectations of quality. This section also requires states to periodically develop lists of “impaired waters” – those that do not meet water quality standards – and establish total maximum daily loads (TMDLs) of pollutants that each water body can carry while still supporting aquatic life and/or remain swimmable and fishable.

[More information available at: http://water.epa.gov/scitech/swguidance/standards/history.cfm]

Section 402 of the Clean Water Act makes it illegal to discharge any point source pollution into “waters of the United States” without a permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This section established the National Pollutant Discharge and Elimination System (NPDES) of permits and required EPA to set limits to and enforce the amount of pollution that can be discharged into waterways from any given point source. Although EPA is the overall administrator of the NPDES program, in most cases the States serve as the permitting and enforcement entity.

[More information available at: http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/cwa.cfm?program_id=6]

1987 Amendments to Clean Water Act – The law was amended to include “stormwater discharges from an industrial activity” in the list of sources that must be covered by an NPDES permit. This definition includes stormwater discharges from municipal storm sewer systems, or “MS4s”, typical of impervious urbanized areas. NPDES rules affecting MS4 localities were rolled out in two phases:

• Phase I (1990): Each medium and large city (and certain counties) with a population of 100,000 or more must obtain an NPDES permit for discharges of stormwater from conveyance systems within its boundaries.
  

• Phase II (1999): Smaller MS4s within a census-defined “urbanized area” must also obtain an NPDES permit for its stormwater discharges.
  

• In both instances, the permitted entity must create an ongoing stormwater management program to reduce stormwater pollution and illicit discharges.

[More information available at: http://cfpub.epa.gov/npdes/stormwater/munic.cfm]

According to the Clean Water Act, wetlands are "those areas that are inundated or saturated by surface or groundwater at a frequency and duration sufficient to support, and that under normal circumstances do support, a prevalence of vegetation typically adapted for life in saturated soil conditions. Wetlands generally include swamps, marshes, bogs and similar areas."

Section 404 of Clean Water Act – Regulates the discharge of fill material or dredge spoils into waters of the U.S., including wetlands. This includes fill for development, mining, dam and levee construction, highway construction, and other such activities. A permit must be obtained from the Army Corps of Engineers before any fill material is discharged to waters of the U.S. Most farming and forestry practices are exempt from Section 404.

Highly Erodible Land Conservation and Wetland Conservation Compliance provisions (“Swampbuster”) – Provisions were included in the 1985 Farm Bill that stated that individuals who drain, fill, or otherwise convert wetlands on their agricultural property are not be eligible for federal farm program benefits, unless the wetland is restored.

“No net loss” policy – The federal government’s goal to maintain wetlands throughout the United States through wetland protection, creation, restoration and management. To mitigate wetland losses due to development, new wetlands must be created or reclaimed. The policy was first adopted in 1988 under George H.W. Bush’s presidency and has been endorsed by each subsequent administration.

There is no comprehensive wetland law at the national level and no specific federal agency that oversees protection of wetlands. Many of the laws that regulate the alteration of wetlands exist at the state and local levels.

[See the Wetlands-At-Risk Protection Tool for ways to protect wetlands that fall between the cracks of regulatory protection: www.wetlandprotection.org.]

Coastal Zone Management Act (1972) – This piece of federal legislation was significant in bringing attention to, and providing resources for, protecting the country’s coastal water resources, including the Great Lakes. It established the National Coastal Zone Management Program that is voluntarily administered by thirty-four states with coastal borders, and overall coordination by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).  The states’ individual programs are usually housed within an existing environmental agency (e.g., Louisiana Department of Natural Resources) and work on a variety of issues such as habitat protection and restoration, water quality, land use planning, climate change, and coastal hazards.

[More information available at: http://coastalmanagement.noaa.gov/czm/czm_act.html]

This Act also instituted a National Estuarine Research Reserve System of protected sites and laboratories to support long-term research of coastal ecosystems. The network of research reserves currently includes 28 natural areas in different bio-geographic regions of the U.S. and each is managed by a government agency or university.

Amendments were made to the Coastal Zone Management Act in 1990 that launched the Coastal Nonpoint Source Pollution Control Program (Section 6217). The aim of this program is to reduce polluted runoff entering coastal waters from a wide range of land uses including forestry, urban areas, and marinas. The program is jointly administered by NOAA and EPA, but generally implemented by the state’s Coastal Zone Management Programs.

[See the Coastal Plain Watershed Information Center for more coastal management tools and resources: http://www.cwp.org/component/content/article/39/112-coastal-plain-watershed-information-center.html]

Requirements for federal facilities to their reduce impact on environmental resources.

National Environmental Policy Act (1969) – This legislation mandates that federal agencies conduct environmental assessments and environmental impact statements when proposing to develop a site or infrastructure. These measures are meant to find ways to reduce impact on the environment during design and construction. This applies to federal agencies developing airports, military compounds, buildings, highways, etc.

[More information available at: http://www.epa.gov/lawsregs/laws/nepa.html]

Section 438 of Energy Independence and Security Act (2007) – Requires federal agencies to reduce stormwater runoff to the maximum extent technically feasible when developing or re-developing properties. This should generally be achieved using green infrastructure and low impact development techniques.

[More information available at: http://www.epa.gov/owow/NPS/lid/section438/]