Publication | Open Access
A Dirty River Runs Through it (the Failure of Enforcement in the Clean Water Act)
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1997
Year
Source Water ProtectionWater PolicyEngineeringEnvironmental LawState LawEnvironmental Impact AssessmentLawDirty River RunsFederal LawEnvironmental CrimeEnvironmental PlanningEnvironmental LegislationEnvironmental PolicyClimate Change LawClean Water ActEnvironmental ManagementUniform State EnforcementClimate LawWater ReallocationEnvironmental Public GoodWater GovernanceEnvironmental GovernancePublic PolicyEnvironmental Legal SystemWater QualityEnvironmental PoliticsWater Resource LawCo-operative FederalismWater ResourcesConservation Laws
Though our environmental legal system is set up in co-operative federalism, which supposedly allows the federal government or citizens to enforce environmental laws if the states do not do so in the first instance, it has a particular weakness. Under the legal doctrines, any enforcement will do, but all enforcement is not created equally. This article does a stastical analysis of two states enforcement records and shows that there enforcement is vastly different. This suggests that the possibility of uniform state enforcement is a myth, leading to problems with environmental protection.