Clean water is a necessity of life, and while it is a physical resource, it also has a significant human aspect. Access to clean water is essential for the health and well-being of individuals and communities, and lack of access can lead to a range of problems, including illness, poverty, and social inequality.

Grethe Lindemann, a Virginia native from coastal Hampton Roads, joins the podcast to discuss her experience with the Clean Water Advocates Program. Sailing and the watery wonders of the Chesapeake Bay played a major role throughout Lindemann’s early years. Skippering a sailboat at age 14 alone under the stars in the Atlantic Ocean away from all civilization, yet surrounded by welcoming dolphins and more, changed her forever. With her first career as an award-winning NASA research engineer later morphing to both for-profit and non-profit entrepreneur in challenged locales including Appalachia – the land of most of her forbears – her focus on sustainable development and environmental justice and protection took hold.

Most recently, after returning to Hampton Roads, Lindemann began looking for new ways to apply her strengths to urgent environmental disparities “back home.”

Clean water is not just a physical resource; it is a fundamental human right that has far-reaching impacts on health, education, and social equity, which Lindemann knows much about. By ensuring that all individuals and communities have access to clean water, we can create a better world for everyone. “The Clean Water Act isn’t just science and technical…there is a human aspect.”

THE CLEAN WATER ACT

The Clean Water Act is a U.S. federal law that was enacted in 1972 to protect the nation’s waters from pollution. The law makes it illegal to discharge any pollutants from a point source into navigable waters without obtaining a permit. A point source is any discernible, confined and discrete conveyance, such as a pipe or ditch, from which pollutants are or may be discharged.

The Clean Water Act also sets water quality standards for all contaminants in surface waters, including lakes, rivers, streams, and wetlands. It provides funding for the construction of sewage treatment plants and requires industries to use pollution prevention practices to reduce the number of pollutants discharged into the water.

Lindemann says, “the Clean Water Act is a profound piece of protection that we have.”

In addition, the Clean Water Act established the framework for regulating pollutant discharges into U.S. waters, including the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program. The NPDES permit program controls pollutant discharges by regulating the number of pollutants that can be discharged, monitoring requirements, and reporting requirements. The goal of the Clean Water Act is to maintain and restore the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation’s waters, and to ensure that they are safe for swimming, fishing, and other activities.

FEATURED PHOTO DONATED BY LORI A CASH