Reducing Pollution in the Nation's Water Bodies

• EPA partners with federal, state, and local agencies, as well as nongovernmental organizations, to develop and implement approaches that can reduce pollution in our nation’s significant water bodies.
• After decades of spearheading restoration efforts in areas such as the Great Lakes and the Chesapeake Bay, improvements in these water bodies remain elusive. Lack of targeted strategies and realistic goals to ensure that limited restoration resources are being used for the most effective restoration activities appears to be a long-standing issue impeding such efforts.
• EPA continues to face the challenges posed by an aging wastewater infrastructure that results in billions of gallons of untreated sewage entering our nation's water bodies and ultimately affecting the safety of beachgoers and those engaged in other water-based recreational activities. Lack of rapid water-testing methods and development of current water quality standards continue to be issues that EPA needs to address.
• The safety of our nation's waters is also threatened by other factors, such as pollutants discharged by large-scale animal feeding operations and the effect of pharmaceuticals and antibiotics that enter water bodies when medication residues pass out of humans and into sewer lines or unused or expired medications enter the waste stream. However, EPA lacks adequate information on the extent to which these discharges are occurring and has not been able to assess the extent which these contaminants are actually affecting human health and the environment.
• Although effective enforcement is key to successfully implementing the Clean Water Act, recent court decisions and national guidance issued by EPA to clarify the agency’s responsibilities under the act has resulted in uncertainty about the extent of the agency’s jurisdiction and a reduction in enforcement activity.

^ Back to topWhat Needs to Be Done

• EPA needs to ensure that the Chesapeake Bay Program develops a coordinated implementation strategy that unifies its various planning documents and establishes a means to better target its limited resources to the most cost-effective restoration activities.

  Highlights of GAO-06-96 (PDF)

• EPA needs to evaluate the implementation of the storm water program and issue additional program guidance and regulatory changes to ensure consistent reporting of activities by communities.

  Highlights of GAO-07-479 (PDF)

• For the Great Lakes Initiative, EPA needs to develop a more consistent permitting strategy for controlling mercury, and it needs to gather more information to help it develop water quality standards and assess the effect of programs intended to minimize pollutants that are exceeding standards.

  Highlights of GAO-08-312T (PDF), Highlights of GAO-05-829 (PDF)

• To better protect the safety of our nation’s beaches, EPA needs to publish new or revised water quality criteria for pathogens and pathogen indicators and develop specific guidance on monitoring frequency and methods of public notification.

  Highlights of GAO-07-591 (PDF)

• To more effectively regulate the discharges from large-scale animal feeding operations, EPA should complete its efforts to develop an inventory of permitted operations.

  Highlights of GAO-08-944 (PDF)

^ Back to topKey Reports

South Florida Ecosystem

Great Lakes Initiative

Coastal Wetlands

Chesapeake Bay Program

More Reports