Reforming Regulatory Impact Analysis

CHAPTER 10

Fish Tales

DOUGLAS A. KYSAR

Before it was amended in 1972, the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, commonly known as the Clean Water Act (CWA), required the setting of various ambient water quality standards that, in turn, were to afford a basis for determining acceptable levels of pollution in interstate navigable waterways. As the Supreme Court has noted, federal and state regulators operating under the early CWA approach found it “very difficult to develop and enforce standards to govern the conduct of individual polluters.”¹ This difficulty was caused in substantial part by informational demands, scientific uncertainties, and valuation questions that accompanied the task of establishing acceptable water quality standards. Thus, ...