Enforcing Clean Water Laws

What's New

On April 10, PennEnvironment filed a federal lawsuit against one of Pennsylvania’s most chronic water polluters under the federal Clean Water Act. Working with the attorneys at National Environmental Law Center and the Pennsylvania chapter of Sierra Club, PennEnvironment filed our suit against Reliant Energy for discharging more than two million gallons of wastewater—nearly every day—containing illegal levels of potentially toxic metals. Click here to read our news release.

Background

Over the last 35 years, the Clean Water Act has helped make significant strides to clean up Pennsylvania’s rivers, lakes and streams. But today, many of our most majestic waterways—from the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers, to the Susquehanna, Ohio and Allegheny—still suffer from industrial pollution and run-off contamination from overdevelopment.

Yet instead of continuing to improve our clean water laws, the Bush administration has implemented policies that eliminate basic Clean Water Act protections for many of our most pristine waterways—in Pennsylvania and nationwide. This has already led to more pol­lution going into the small streams and nearby wetlands that nourish our state’s great rivers.

We need Pennsylvania’s elected officials in Washington, D.C., to act now and ensure that all of our rivers and streams are protected—for the present and for future generations.