Laws Protecting Wetlands

The Environmental Protection Agency in recent years has helped develop legislation that would further help the wetlands and the other parts of the United States. Two key pieces of legislation specifically that affect the restoration and preservation of the wetlands are the Clean Water Act of 1972 and North American Wetlands Conservation of 1989. The first act, also known as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, was originally put into law in 1948 but overhauled in the 1970s. The programs and laws in the act help with both the quality of water and helps punish people and companies who impede the progress of such things.

The Clean Water Act has five key points. The Encyclopedia of Earth website at eoearth.org defines the five points of this act as: a system of minimum national effluent standards for each industry; water quality standards; a discharge permit program that translates these standards into enforceable limits; provisions for special problems such as toxic chemicals and oil spills; and, a revolving construction loan program for publicly-owned treatment works.

Water protection is addressed specifically in two sections: Section 101 and Section 303. The first section, Section 101 helps protect the wildlife as well as any recreation activities in or on water in the United States. The latter section, Section 303, helps protect the water quality; however some states hadn’t established quality standards for wetlands. The other problem is that the Clean Water Act did not protect the wetlands or the elimination of them. Another section discusses specifically the pollution of the wetlands and other waters.

The other important act to protect wetlands is the North American Wetlands Conservation Act. The act helps provide grants for wetland conservation and protect the wildlife of the area. Funding for the act comes from partnerships with businesses, conservation organizations, citizens, and the government. The federal government, specifically the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, then matches these funds. 

Sources:

http://www.eoearth.org/article/Clean_Water_Act,_United_States

http://www.water.ncsu.edu/watershedss/info/wetlands/protect.html#sec101

http://www.fws.gov/birdhabitat/Grants/NAWCA/index.shtm

http://operationdeltaduck.com/blog/2011/02/the-death-of-north-american-wetlands-conservation-act-grants/

http://www.igkmrp.org/nawca.htm