Clean Water Act Marks 50 Years as Lawyers Say Improvement Needed

The Clean Water Act has been hailed one half-century after its passage for taking steps to curb pollution on the nation’s riverways and streams, but improvements are still needed to ensure the law accomplishes its mission, natural resources attorneys say.

The law, an update to the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, was inspired in part by an environmental movement that amassed following fires in Ohio’s befouled Cuyahoga River in the 1960s. The law took effect Oct. 18, 1972—50 years ago on Tuesday—after Congress overrode President Richard Nixon’s veto of the bill because he thought its price tag of $24.6 billion ...