Putting Drinking Water First

“Putting Drinking Water First” means stopping threats to drinking water where they start.

Clean Water Action is working to win strong water pollution controls by focusing on public health and drinking water impacts and bringing public health and environmental advocacy into Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) implementation.

Water flowing out of a pipe into an open field

Putting Drinking Water First: The Case for Sustained and Equitable Federal Water Infrastructure Investment

This paper makes the case for sustained and equitable federal investment in water infrastructure, highlighting the critical role of State Revolving Funds (SRFs) in delivering safe, affordable drinking water and protecting source water. It outlines the risks of upcoming funding cuts, showcases community impacts, and calls for an all-of-the-above strategy that includes SRFs, WIFIA, technical assistance, and direct grants.

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Putting Drinking Water First: Clean Water Act Protections for Streams and Wetlands are Essential for Safeguarding Drinking Water

The Clean Water Act is intended to protect waterways from harmful pollutants, yet many streams and wetlands have lost their protections and others continue to be at risk. Streams and wetlands are more than just landscape features — they are critical parts of our natural water infrastructure that influence downstream water quality, including in drinking water sources.

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Lake Erie Algal Bloom - August 2015. Photo Credit: NOAA Great Lakes CoastWatch

Putting Drinking Water First to Address Nutrient Pollution

Nutrient pollution from nitrogen and phosphorus runoff is one of the most pervasive water quality problems in the U.S., and there's increasing concern about its impact on drinking water.

Putting Drinking Water First: Restoring Clean Water Act Protections to Streams and Wetlands

Protecting sources of drinking water from contamination is essential to ensuring safe drinking water. Source Water Protection includes maintaining the health of streams, wetlands, and other water bodies, but there has been confusion over which water resources are covered under Clean Water Act pollution control programs following Supreme Court decisions in 2001 and 2006 and subsequent Bush Administration policies.

Putting Drinking Water First: Time to Curb Power Plants' Toxic Pollution

Clean Water Action’s analysis of supporting documents for the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Proposed Effluent Limitations Guidelines and Standards for the Steam Electric Power Generating Point Source Category confirms that power plant discharges to surface water often include contaminants that experts consider to be "contaminants of concern" when found in drinking water.

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The Clean Water for All Act

Everyone deserves access to clean water, and that’s why it’s so important that leaders in the U.S. House are fighting back against the Trump administration’s rollback of clean water safeguards. The Clean Water For All Act (H.R. 6745) would block the administration’s reckless Dirty Water Rule, which

Responding to COVID-19

Click here to read more on Clean Water Action's response to the Covid-19 pandemic and the policies we are enacting to keep our members and our communities safe.

Large group of people as seen from above. Credit: Stockernumber2 / iStock

What's at stake with the Dirty Water Rule

In January 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized it's Navigable Waters Protection Rule (AKA "The Dirty Water Rule") to slash federal clean water safeguards. Trump’s Dirty Water Rule is a radical reinterpretation of the Clean Water Act that would eliminate protections for rain

The Water Polluter Loophole

Trump's EPA is out to please its industry allies at the expense of public health and the environment. One of the latest assaults is on the Clean Water Act’s coverage of pollution that flows into lakes, rivers, and bays through groundwater.

EPA wants to open a big loophole for water polluters

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