40 Years of the Clean Water Act

A couple days ago, the New York Times published an op-ed piece entitled "Keep the Clean Water Act Strong". The Act will celebrate its 40th anniversary next year. The article notes the successes of the Clean Water Act, but focuses on continuing challenges to its success, including ambiguously-worded laws, the prevailing belief that polluting business practices are better than clean business practices, and others. Moreover, in July 2011, Congress "strip[ped] the E.P.A. of some of its authority to enforce the Clean Water Act."

Oftentimes, environmental health and economic health are seen as being incompatible - one must be compromised in order to let the other flourish. However, a number of examples (here's one, from PRI's The World) prove that this is not always the case - protecting the environment can go hand in hand with protecting the economy, especially when it comes to farming.

Using conservation agriculture techniques has been proven to improve the health of the land (for example, planting a cover crop keeps nitrogen in the soil and drastically reduces erosion), and therefore the quality and yield of the crop.

Interested in learning more about the impact of erosion on farmland? Watch this short video for a primer:

Are you interested in learning more? Check out IASWCD's website!