If you answered the Clean Water Act, I'd be shocked and deeply, deeply appalled. But I trust that the the thought, fair reader, never crossed your mind. But perhaps, fair reader, that's only because unlike some persons of power and esteem, you're not in the sweet satin pockets of those whose interests lie in being free of pesky EPA regulations. At any rate, The House of Representatives is tossing around what it so handsomely calls the Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011, which would give individual states the power to veto aspects of the Clean Water Act.
Before the Clean Water Act, roughly none of our nation's waterways were fit for recreation, which is to say, not safe to come in contact with. Testimony to this fun-fact, rivers that caught on fire! So why would any state, whose interests lie in protecting its people, repeal the Clean Water Act? Let's ask West Virginia!
“Hey, West Virgina?”
“Yeah, boss?”
“What's with these profit margins?”
“Well... you see, boss. Remember how fifty years ago we could dump our wastes into lakes and rivers or
just bury it discreetly where it may or may not contaminate groundwater? They don't let us do that anymore.”
Ouch. I apologize. This is coming across as comical, but only because the situation is so morbidly absurd. When states mandate their own pollution control there is nothing to stop them from polluting their part of a river to levels acceptable by them and nothing to protect their downstream neighbors, who may have much more stringent controls.
This article from The Huffington Post sums up the peril better than I do. I implore you to look further into this issue. I have a terrible feeling that it's going to get dirty.
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