Clean Water Act

Description

These data represent geographic terms used within the Clean Water Act (CWA). The CWA establishes the basic structure for regulating the addition of pollutants (discharges) into waters of the United States, a three mile territorial sea, a 12 mile contiguous zone, and the ocean. The goal of the CWA is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation's waters. This data includes two component boundaries, which delineate the seaward extent of various parts of the CWA. The boundary of a three mile territorial sea and 12 mile contiguous zone are relevant to application of various discharge standards associated with vessels or other floating craft, that vary depending on operational status. As referenced within the CWA, these two boundaries are based on the 1958 Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zone, and not the contemporary extent of these respective boundaries. While the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is not specified with the CWA, it is denoted here for illustrative purposes. The CWA does not include inland waters because 1) it is difficult to properly identify the nationwide extent of all inland water bodies, and 2) there is current litigation with EPA of such water bodies falling under the jurisdiction of the CWA. When investigating geo-regulatory boundaries near the boundary edges, users should consult the most up-to-date applicable jurisdictional boundaries from all respective authoritative sources. Source: https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-08/documents/federal-water-pollution-control-act-508full.pdf Date enacted: April 30, 1948 Codification: 33 U.S.C. Sec. 1251 et seq. Authority: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Resources

Name Format Description Link
57 CleanWaterAct.zip https://marinecadastre.gov/downloads/data/mc/CleanWaterAct.zip
0 MarineCadastre.gov Data Registry https://marinecadastre.gov/data/
0 View the complete metadata record on InPort for more information about this dataset. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/48856
0 NOAA Office for Coastal Management Home Page https://coast.noaa.gov
33 NOAA Data Management Plan for this record on InPort. https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inportserve/waf/noaa/nos/ocm/dmp/pdf/48856.pdf
0 The information provided on this page seeks to define how the GCMD Keywords are structured, used and accessed. It also provides information on how users can participate in the further development of the keywords. https://www.earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/find-data/idn/gcmd-keywords

Tags

  • human dimensions
  • alaska
  • clean water act
  • united states of america
  • office of coastal management
  • environmental governance/management
  • national ocean service
  • marine boundaries
  • american samoa
  • united states
  • continent
  • cnmi
  • noaa
  • guam
  • hawaii
  • north america
  • doc/noaa/nos/ocm
  • u.s. department of commerce
  • earth science
  • ocean planning
  • commonwealth of the northern mariana islands
  • marinecadastre
  • u.s. virgin islands
  • puerto rico

Topics

Categories