Word: watered
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Rebuckling the planet's life belt may prove formidable. The federal Clean Water Act of 1972 overlooked runoff pollution in setting standards for water quality. Meanwhile, the nation's coasts are subject to the jurisdiction of a bewildering (and often conflicting) array of governmental bodies. One prime example of this confusion, reports TIME Houston Bureau Chief Richard Woodbury, is found in North Carolina's Albemarle-Pamlico region. There both the federal Food and Drug Administration and a state agency regulate the harvesting of shellfish. A third agency, the state's health department, surveys and samples the water and shellfish...
...enforcement of existing clean-water policies is another obstacle. According to Clean Ocean Action, a New Jersey-based watchdog group, 90% of the 1,500 pipelines in the state that are allowed to discharge effluent into the sea do so in violation of regulatory codes. Municipalities flout the rules as well. Even if Massachusetts keeps to a very tight schedule on its plans to upgrade sewage treatment, Boston will not be brought into compliance with the Clean Water Act until 1999 -- 22 years after the law's deadline. Meanwhile, the half a billion gallons of sewage that pour into Boston...
Washington is one of the few states with a comprehensive cleanup program. Three years ago, the Puget Sound water-quality authority developed a master plan for cleaning up the heavily polluted, 3,200-sq.-mi. body of water. The state legislature has levied an 8 cents-a-pack surtax on cigarettes to help pay the bill; this year the tax will contribute an estimated $25 million to the cleanup. The Puget Sound authority and other state agencies closely monitor discharge of industrial waste and are working with companies on ways to reduce effluent...
...Puget Sound group has an educational program that teaches area residents everything from the history of the sound to what not to put down the kitchen sink. Controlling pollution is promoted as everyone's task. High school students take water samples, and island dwellers have been trained in what to do if they spot an oil spill. Says Seattle Water-Quality Planner Hubbard: "Bridgetenders are great at calling in with violations. They are up high, and when they see a black scum or a little slick, they let us know about...
...began in Benjamin Franklin's day. By World War II, the river had become so foul that airplane pilots could smell it at 5,000 ft. President Franklin Roosevelt even considered it a threat to national security. In 1941 he ordered an investigation to determine whether gases from the water were causing corrosion at a secret radar installation on the estuary...