Clean Water Act at 40: Facing the Future

When:

May 7, 2012: 8:30AM to 6:00PM

Where:

Vassar College Student's Building Multi-Purpose Room, Poughkeepsie, NY map

To Attend:

Register by May 3

The Hudson River Environmental Society is holding a one-day conference, Clean Water Act at 40: Facing the Future, to look at the challenges facing us in the continued implementation of the Clean Water Act. The agenda includes eight speakers, including Phillip Musegaas, Riverkeeper’s Hudson River Program director. A poster session and social will follow from 3-6 p.m.

The title of Musegaas’ talk is “Successes and Challenges of the Clean Water Act Forty Years In: What Would Ed Muskie Think?”

Officially titled the Federal Water Pollution Control Amendments of 1972, the objective of the Clean Water Act was “…to restore and maintain the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters.” Passage of the act led to unprecedented efforts to clean up our Nation’s waters in an effort to render them “fishable and swimmable”. These efforts, largely driven by funding from the federal government, resulted in substantial reductions in the discharge of pollutants from point discharges and yielded significant improvements in water quality that benefited both humans and wildlife in many areas of the country, including the Hudson River Valley. Now, however, most of the traditional point sources have been reasonably addressed. Further improvements will require addressing non-traditional pollutants and non-point sources, both of which will have much greater social and economic consequences than we have faced in the past. In addition, many of the engineering fixes which controlled point-source pollution are now reaching the end of their useful life.

The conference is free to members of Hudson River Environmental Society, and $40 for non-members, with discounts for students and those who attend only the poster session.