A Dirty River Runs Through it (the Failure of Enforcement in the Clean Water Act)

46 Pages Posted: 16 Jan 2012

See all articles by Victor Byers Flatt

Victor Byers Flatt

Case Western Reserve University School of Law

Date Written: December 1, 1998

Abstract

Though our environmental legal system is set up in co-operative federalism, which supposedly allows the federal government or citizens to enforce environmental laws if the states do not do so in the first instance, it has a particular weakness. Under the legal doctrines, any enforcement will do, but all enforcement is not created equally. This article does a stastical analysis of two states enforcement records and shows that there enforcement is vastly different. This suggests that the possibility of uniform state enforcement is a myth, leading to problems with environmental protection.

Keywords: state enforcement, environment, citizens suit, federalism, cooperative federalism, Clean Water Act, Georgia water act enforcement, Washington water act enforcement

JEL Classification: C12, H77, I18, K23, K32, Q28

Suggested Citation

Flatt, Victor Byers, A Dirty River Runs Through it (the Failure of Enforcement in the Clean Water Act) (December 1, 1998). Boston College Environmental Affairs Law Review, Vol. 25, No. 1, 1998, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1986189

Victor Byers Flatt (Contact Author)

Case Western Reserve University School of Law ( email )

11075 East Boulevard
Cleveland, OH 44106-7148
United States

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