Clean Water Current

EPA hosted an event Oct. 18 to recognize the 50^th Anniversary of the landmark Clean Water Act (CWA) along the banks of the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland Ohio, with many NACWA members present to join the celebration.

The event featured speeches from EPA Administrator, Michael Regan; Assistant Administrator for Water, Radhika Fox; and Chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Brenda Mallory. 

NACWA also wants to highlight the work of our Board Member, Kyle Dreyfuss-Wells, and the staff at member utility the Northeast Ohio Regional Sewer District (NEORSD), who worked closely with EPA to help set up the successful event and conducted a plant tour with many of the attendees after the ceremony. NEORSD’s involvement stood as a reminder of the incredible efforts and investments that public clean water agencies have made across the country and the central role NACWA’s member utilities have played in ensuring five decades of environmental and public health progress. 

The Administrator focused his comments on the partnerships it took to make the CWA such a success and the need for such partnerships going forward if we are to ensure that every citizen has access to clean and safe water.  CEQ Chair Mallory focused her remarks on the fact that the CWA has benefits not just for communities, but across watershed boundaries and for the entire planet as a whole and underscored the importance of thinking both locally and globally to ensure another 50 years of progress.

AA Fox noted that the leaders in attendance demonstrated their commitment – on a cold and rainy day – to ensure they were there to mark the historic day and it is this type of commitment that led to the Act’s success and will lead to the Act’s next 50 years of success. 

NACWA thanks all of its members who helped celebrate the CWA’s anniversary this week and looks forward to another 50 years of amazing clean water progress!