Why does the Environmental Protection Agency have the power to approve or deny development?
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency and Water Quality The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency opened in 1972, the same year the The Federal Water Pollution Control Act was passed. This law was amended in 1977 and has since been known as the Clean Water Act of 1977. The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Division of Surface Waters is responsible for enforcing the Clean Water Act in Ohio. This includes protecting the physical, chemical, and biological state of Ohio waters. Section 401 of the CWA requires approval from state agencies for permitting any activity “which may result in any discharge into the navigable waters” of a state. It regulates discharges from industrial, storm water, mining and municipal point sources. Permits issued to these sources include limits and requirements to protect water quality in the receiving streams. The Army Corps of Engineers’ authority under section 404 of the CWA only extends to the normal high water mark of a navigable body of water. But t
