Water Quality Today - Has the Clean Water Act Been a Success?
Water Quality Today - Has the Clean Water Act Been a Success?
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当今的水质 - 《清洁水法案》成功了吗？
DOI：
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发表时间：
2004
期刊：
影响因子：
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通讯作者：
W. L. Andreen
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
W. L. Andreen
《清洁水法》今天正处于关键时刻。在我们有充分的机会评估旧技术的效果之前，新政策、新方法可能很快就会被采用。在我们处理变革问题时，我们需要尽可能准确地确定哪些做法有效，哪些做法失败。虽然该法需要修订，以填补覆盖面方面的各种空白，但该法中改革的主要候选方面并不总是批评者所针对的方面。事实上，CWA在做它设计要做的事情方面非常成功。事实证明，通过许可证制度实行基于技术的污水限制是对点源进行初步控制的明智办法。加上为数以千计的城市废水处理设施提供的资金，这种基于技术的办法显著减少了城市和工业污染。CWA在其他方面也取得了成功。自20世纪70年代初以来，湿地消失的速度已经下降了约90%，每年泄漏到我们沃茨的石油数量已经下降到20世纪70年代普遍水平的十分之一。所有这些都没有对我们的经济或国际竞争力造成损害。事实上，遵守该法案的成本低于环保署的预期，我们最大的11个贸易伙伴实际上在控制水污染方面的人均花费比我们还要多。此外，该法所产生的经济利益似乎比许多人所设想的要大。该法案及其成功证明了其起草者的远见、洞察力和勇气。不幸的是，由于人力和政治能力有限，无论是设计还是执行都不完美，但这并不令人惊讶。
The Clean Water Act is at a critical juncture today. New policies, new approaches may soon be adopted before we have had an adequate opportunity to assess how well the old techniques have worked. We need to determine as accurately as possible what has worked and what has failed as we approach the question of change. Although the Act stands in need of revision to fill various gaps in coverage, the aspects of the Act that are prime candidates for reform are not always the ones the critics target. The CWA, in fact, has been remarkably successful in doing what it was designed to do. The application of technology-based effluent limitations through the permit system has proven to have been a wise approach for the initial control of point sources. Together with the funding of thousands of municipal wastewater treatment facilities, the technology-based approach has produced remarkable reductions in both municipal and industrial pollution. The CWA has proven successful in other ways as well. The rate at which wetlands are lost has declined some 90 percent since the early 1970s, and the amount of oil spilled annually into our waters has fallen to one-tenth of the level that prevailed during the 1970s. All of this was done without causing harm to the economy or to our international competitiveness. In fact, the cost of complying with the Act has been lower than the EPA anticipated, and eleven of our largest trading partners actually spend more per capita on controlling water pollution than we do. The economic benefits produced by the Act, moreover, appear greater than many had assumed. The Act and its success stand as a testament to the vision, insight, and courage of its drafters. Unfortunately, but not suprisingly given the limits of human and political capacity, neither the design nor its implementation have been perfect.