Walmart Clean Water Act

Words: 846
Pages: 4

The clean water act was put in effect in 1972. Under this act pollution was controlled and regulated by setting standards for where industries can dump their waste. The clean water act did many great things, cleaned up many lakes and main sources of water, however the act does not meet with today’s standards. Runoff during storms can send untreated sewage into main water sources, rules for what industries can and cannot dump are out of date, new chemicals are being created far faster than they were 30 years ago, and 20 year old treatment plants are in desperate need of an upgrade. The Clean Water Act should be revised to meet the standards of today’s pollution. We have to update the Clean Water Act and enforce stricter water policies. Although overall pollution of rivers and lakes have decreased since the Clean Water Act was passed pollution still remains a major concern. “According to the Environmental Protection Agency, up to 40 percent of U.S. waters are still too …show more content…
“Wal-Mart did not have a program in place and failed to train its employees on proper hazardous waste management and disposal practices at the store level. As a result, hazardous wastes were either discarded improperly at the store level – including being put into municipal trash bins or, if a liquid, poured into the local sewer system – or they were improperly transported without proper safety documentation to one of six product return centers located throughout the United States.” (News)
By doing this “Wal-Mart put the public and the environment at risk and gained an unfair economic advantage over other companies” (News). Not only this but oil companies who do off shore drilling and use super tanks for transport are major contributors to pollution. Such as it is “estimate[d] that of every million tons of oil shipped, one ton is spilled” (Water