Upholding the Clean Water Act for the Rogue

Rogue Riverkeeper works to protect against threats to our water resources in the Rogue River Basin through advocacy, accountability, and community engagement. We work to safeguard the health of the Rogue River, using fundamental environmental protections such as the Clean Water Act to improve water quality across the watershed.

Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972 to “restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters.” It is a cornerstone of our nation’s environmental laws and put in place protections for rivers like the Rogue across the country. The fundamental premise of the Act is that pollutants discharged from a point source into waters of the United States are illegal without a permit to set limits on those discharges. Critically, the law also establishes a citizen suit provision, which allows citizens to legally challenge violations of the Clean Water Act or failure to implement or enforce its requirements.