Ensuring the Clean Water Act Enforced -- Section 303 and TMDLs

From 1993 to 1996 the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, with the American Littoral Society and Delaware Sierra Club, represented by the Widener Environmental Law Clinic, pursued legal actions against the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to ensure compliance in the watershed states of Pennsylvania and Delaware with section 303 of the Clean Water Act. After long, protracted settlement negotiations that set high standards later pursued by other organizations across the country, the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and our colleagues secured 10 year agreements that resulted in full compliance with the law including the identification and listing of waterways that fail to meet their water quality standards and the creation of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) designed to ensure their clean up.