Running head: WATER WE DOING?

Water we doing? An Analysis of the Legal System’s Effect on our Oceans

Ashton C. Dixon

First Colonial High School

Legal Studies Academy

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Abstract

The main purpose of this paper is to identify what laws, agreements, and partnerships have

contributed from keeping the ocean from further being polluted. The author will also

identify the types of pollution that affect the oceans. Furthermore, this paper will give

examples of the agreements and regulations that protect the oceans from anymore pollution

on an international, national, and local level. Ultimately, this paper will analyze the effect

that legislation has on the world’s oceans.

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Water we doing?: An Analysis of the Legal System’s Failure to keep our Oceans

Clean

We are killing the oceans​.​ It all started with the Industrial Revolution​.​ We are producing so

many products that when we are done using it, we just throw it away​.​ Most of the time, the

trash ends up in the waterways and eventually into the ocean​.​ Countries have developed

regulations to help prevent trash from entering the ocean, but trash isn’t the only problem​.

Toxic chemicals and fumes are being absorbed by the ocean and killing life that is in it​.

Water pollution affects the world as a whole by disturbing the ocean’s natural equilibrium​.

Types of Water Pollution

There are two distinct types of water pollution: physical and chemical. Physical

pollution is what is placed in the water, for instance trash, oil, etc​.​ Chemical pollution is any

type of chemicals that are absorbed into waterway​.​ For example, herbicides and carbon

dioxide are absorbed by the ocean and reeking havoc on the underwater habitats and

wildlife​.

Physical Pollution

Garbage.​ Trash is the biggest category of physical pollution​.​ Most of the trash that

is found in waterways around the world is made up of plastic. “Anywhere from 4​.​8 million

to 12.7 million metric tons of plastic” can be found in the oceans ("Plastic below the Ocean
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Surface," 2016)​.​ However, this data can be different depending on how the ocean currents

are circulating the water, even more plastic could be found on the ocean floor ("Plastic”)​.

These ocean gyres circulate the trash into huge areas called garbage patches​.​ The Pacific

Garbage Patch is the largest of these trash centers; it is not a floating island of trash. It is an

area in the pacific ocean where the plastic concentration is higher than anywhere else​.​ It is

not a specified size due to circulation of ocean currents, but location can be determined by

the amount of trash in the area (What is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch?, 2010)​.​ Trash isn’t

the only physical pollutant; human waste also contributes to this category​.

Sewage.​ Sewage is any wastewater that comes from human sewage plants​.​ Most of

the sewage that comes from humans include wastewater from toilets, showers, baths, and

garbage disposals connected to sinks​.​ Because of the densely populated coastline, human

wastewater is monitored very closely in order to prevent the waste from entering the

waterways quicker​.​ Sewage plants weren’t always monitored​.​ In the Supreme Court case

City of Milwaukee v. Illinois​, the state of Illinois and the City of Milwaukee had a

disagreement on how to handle sewage treatment plants built near Lake Michigan​.​ The City

of Milwaukee has two major sewage treatment plants near Lake Michigan​.​ The plants hold

to EPA regulations, until heavy rain comes through the area​.​ The sewage treatment plants

would often overflow directly into Lake Michigan, and the pollution would flow down to
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Illinois​.​ Illinois complained that the discharge of the two sewage plants contributes to the

poor health of its citizens​.​ Illinois also argued that the sewage sped up the process of

eutrophication (algae blooms) of the lake and surrounding waterways killing the wildlife

that live in the Lake​.​ The Supreme Court favored Milwaukee, unfortunately, because the

sewage treatment plant had been under EPA regulations before the Federal Water Pollution

Control Act had been revised​.​ This act tightened the rules on how sewage plants would

operate​.​ Because the sewage plants were built before the law was revised, they fell under the

regulations that were enacted at that time​.​ This made the sewage plants under regulation​.

Illinois originally brought its case to court in 1972 while Milwaukee was under EPA

regulation ​(City of Milwaukee et al v. Illinois et al)​. ​This case set a precedent that if a

sewage plant was made under old regulations, then it is still technically under regulations.

Chemical Pollution

Pesticides.​ Farmers use all sorts of chemicals on their fields, one being pesticides​.

Pesticides kill insects or other organisms that try to eat the crops grown​.​ Most of the time,

the pesticides are washed away by rain​.​ The chemicals then make their way into waterways

and cause huge problems​.​ The washed off pesticides create dead zones in water​.​ Dead zones

are areas of the ocean where the oxygen level is so low only microorganisms can live

there​(US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration,

2010)​.​ ​ This is caused by farms’ pesticide run off that boosts phytoplankton populations.
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This causes a feeding frenzy and the the fish produce waste. The bacteria then decompose

using the oxygen in the water​.​ Hypoxia occurs and the dead zone becomes dead​. ​Hypoxia

occurs when the oxygen level in the water is so low that it can kill the marine life. The

biggest dead zone known is by the Mississippi River in North America​.​ Because the

Mississippi has the largest watershed in America, most of the rivers that feed into it have

farms by them​.​ The chemical pollution dumps into the Gulf of Mexico and creates a huge

dead zone by Louisiana ​(US Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration, 2010)​.

Fertilizers.​ Fertilizers can have harmful effects to aquatic life too​.​ These chemicals

promote plant growth by adding phosphorus and nitrogen to the ground​.​ Most of the time,

the farmers spray too much of their fertilizers on the field, and the rain washes it away​.

When the rain water finds its way to a body of water, that water then becomes super

concentrated with nutrients​.​ ​All of the extra nutrients in the water cause large amounts of

algae to bloom​.​ As the algae dies, bacteria decomposes it and uses the oxygen in the water​.

This creates hypoxia which is when the water has little oxygen​.​ In extreme cases,

eutrophication can cause anoxic conditions in the water that kill the animals ​(US

Department of Commerce, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2004)​.

Man-made products are not the only thing that is hurting bodies of water; the carbon in the

air does damage too​.

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Carbon Dioxide.​ Carbon has three major sinks (storage areas) within its cycle, those

being the atmosphere, the ground, and the ocean​.​ Carbon dioxide that is released into the

atmosphere sometimes finds its way to the oceans​.​ From there, the carbon dioxide bonds

with the water molecules and start to acidify the oceans​.​ The carbonate ion, which is formed

from the carbon being absorbed, decreases the pH level of surface water​.​ This is known as

acidification (Craig, 2015)​.​ Since the industrial revolution, the pH of the oceans have

decreased by 0.1 point. This may not seen like a lot, but the pH scale is not a linear scale, it

is exponential​.​ So in reality, the ocean is 30% more acidic now than when it was prior to the

Industrial Revolution (NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, n​.​d​.​)​.​ This has had

a huge affect on coral reefs and shellfish​.​ The bicarbonate ions bond with the calcium found

in coral and shellfish​.​ This causes the shells to break down and eventually kill the creature​.

Pteropods are some of the smallest creatures that use calcium to make their shells​.​ These

creatures are at the start of the food chain​.​ The pteropods are being affected by the

acidification​.​ They are dying faster than in the past​.​ Without them, the food web will be

greatly affected (NOAA Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, n​.​d​.​)​.​ There have been a

global effort to stop ocean acidification and prevent anymore waste from entering the ocean​.

International Partnerships
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Nations have come together to help fight the issue of ocean pollution​.​ The United

Nations have held a number of conventions and meetings in order to discuss how to combat

the issue​.​ The European Union and China have both developed laws and regulations

concerning ocean pollution​.

United Nations

The Convention on the Territorial Sea and the Contiguous Zones was the United

Nationś first attempt of solving the problem​.​ This agreement outlines what area of water

belongs to each state, and how it is the state’s responsibility to monitor their area of water​.

All countries that are adjacent to a waterway must periodically check the water quality

(United Nations, 1958)​.​ At the time, this agreement had worked, but as industrialization

continued, this agreement slowly dwindled in its effects​.​ In 1982, the Convention on the

Law of the Sea redefined the regulations set up in 1958​.​ Judith Weis, author of ​Marine

Pollution: What Everyone needs to Know, ​describes the terms of the agreement as:

The LOS sets forth a legal framework for the sea, the seabed, and its subsoil,

plus the protection of the marine environment and its resources​.​ It requires

countries to adopt regulations and laws to control marine pollution and

establishes jurisdictional limits on the ocean area that countries may claim,

including a 12-mile territorial sea limit and a 200-mile exclusive economic

zone limit​.​ (Weis, 2015)​.

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It has more of a focus on keeping the oceans clean than defining what boundaries countries

have​.​ The United States have agreed to follow the rules set in place by the LOS, but it has

not been ratified by Congress​.​ The United States keeps its promise to the Law of the Sea

convention through the Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act in accordance to

Section VI, Article 210 of the Law of the Sea, which states that “​states shall adopt laws and

regulations to prevent, reduce and control pollution of the marine environment by

dumping” (United Nations, 1982)​.​ The LOS also states that pollution must be monitored

and any dumping that occurs in the nation’s water must be regulated by either a permit

from the government or by laws​.​ All the nations that agreed to the agreement have

developed some way of making sure that pollution is in check​.

European Union

The European Union has made rules concerning how every country involved

within in the international treaty will protect its waterways​.​ ​Members of the EU are in

charge of monitoring certain parts of river basins that flow through each state’s territory​.

Each state must have an action plan and restrictions that the water quality must fall into​.​ For

the marine waters, the EU split up all the seas into four distinct sections: the Baltic Sea,

North-East Atlantic, Mediterranean Sea, and Black Sea​. ​Any country that uses the sea, must

collaborate with the other countries to create a plan to work together and keep the sea clean

based on “biodiversity, presence of nonindigenous species, stock health, food chain,

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eutrophication, hydrographic conditions, and contaminants” (Weis, 2015)​.​ Each area must

adhere to the European’s laws that dictate what the water quality should be​.​ With this

system in place, the European Union has been able to increase the conditions of the bodies

of water (Weis, 2015)​.​ Due to European initiatives, the carbon emission levels in Europe,

has decreased by 0​.​4% (European Commision, 2017)​.​ Although this may not seem like a

lot, carbon monoxide makes up 80% of Europe’s greenhouse gas contribution (European

Commision, 2017)​.​ Europe may have a problem with keeping their water clean, some

countries are having trouble keeping their water​.

China

China is using more water than it has to spare​.​ Water shortage in China is limiting

growth in industry, agriculture, and the economy​.​ As China grew into an industrialized

nation starting in the 1950’s, pollution in the nation’s waterways has become worse​.​ China

has combated this problem by enacting various laws and codes​.​ The Chinese government

feels that water pollution is a huge problem and needs to be fixed​.​ China has an average

rainfall of “648 mm per year, this is 20% less than the world’s average of 800mm”

(Yongming, 1992)​. ​Water availability in China is very limited​. ​The water that is used,

mainly goes to agriculture or business​. ​Wastewater is also a huge issue, where less than a

quarter of the water being dumped back into the rivers and streams is actually treated​.​ China
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has started to enact regulations to help combat the wastewater issue​.​ The Water Law of the

People’s Republic of China was put in place to protect old sources of water and to create

new sources so that the water crisis would end (China Water Risk, n​.​d​.​)​. ​This law enables

private business to regulate water in China and establishes a user-pay system that regulates

fees that a person must pay after using water (China Water Risk, n​.​d​.​)​.​ China also enacted

the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Prevention and Control of Water Pollution

which set up regulations on how businesses treat the water they are using​.​ For the most part,

they are in charge of making sure that any wastewater that is produced is cleaned properly

(China Water Risk, n​.​d​.​)​.​ China has made huge changes to their environmental policy over

the last twenty years​.

United States

During the 1970’s, the United States enacted huge environmental policies​.​ The

States mainly focused on the condition of surface water within the boundaries of the

country, but some of the laws extended to cleaning the air and regulating nuclear waste​.​ The

Clean Water Act came about around this time and has caused huge changes to how we treat

our water​.

Clean Water Act of 1972

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The Clean Water Act of 1972 is one of America’s most influential pieces of

legislation​. ​It sets up a way to monitor how businesses are treating waste water and how the

environment is being affected by businesses​.​ The Clean Water Act focuses on:

Established the basic structure for regulating pollutant discharges into the waters of

the United States​.​ Gave EPA the authority to implement pollution control programs

such as setting wastewater standards for industry​.​ Maintained existing requirements

to set water quality standards for all contaminants in surface waters​.​ Made it

unlawful for any person to discharge any pollutant from a point source into

navigable waters, unless a permit was obtained under its provisions​.​ Funded the

construction of sewage treatment plants under the construction grants program​.

Recognized the need for planning to address the critical problems posed by nonpoint

source pollution ("History of the Clean Water Act," 2017)​.

This piece of legislation has revolutionized how Americans treat the marine environment​.

The United States government has created the Environmental Protection Agency in order to

regulate and maintain the health of the marine environment​.

Environmental Protection Agency

The Environmental Protection Agency was created in order to protect the the United

State’s water, air, and wildlife​.​ It enforces environmental laws enacted by Congress by

creating taxes and other penalties​.​ It also has the responsibility to distribute permits relating
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to dumping and permits relating to where businesses can gather resources​.​ If a business

doesn not follow EPA standards, the EPA has the power to sue the company and shut it

down​.​ The Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act​,​ or the Ocean Dumping Act of

1972 regulates how ocean dumping will be transported outside of territorial limits and

prevents the dumping of materials that “would adversely affect human health, welfare, or

amenities, or the marine environment, ecological systems, or economic potentialities”(Weis,

2015)​. ​ MPRSA authorizes the EPA to issue permits to companies that allow them to dump

waste as long as it fits into the requirements​.​ As information is gathered about how humans

affect the Earth, the EPA adjusts its requirements on achieving a permit​.​ It has advised

Congress about passing further legislation to protect surface water in the United States and

in June of 2017, Congress made an effort to protect the Great Lakes in the Coordinated

Ocean Monitoring and Research Act​.​ With this Act, The United States Congress is trying to

revise a previous law made to observe the effects of ocean pollution and acidification on

marine life in both the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, the Great Lakes, and other bodies of

water within the United States (S​.​ 1425, 2017)​.​ This allows NOAA and the EPA to further

research what affects carbon dioxide and other pollution have on marine life in new areas

such as the Great Lakes​.​ This law has not yet passed in both houses, but has made its way

through the Senate​.​ The Environmental Protection Agency focuses on regulating

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environmental laws on a national level, Virginia has its own institution for environmental

laws​.

Virginia

The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is a state level organization that checks up on and

protects the Chesapeake Bay watershed. According to ​the Virginia Code Title 28​.​2, Ch 11,

§28​.​2-1100, ​Virginia has an institute to observe marine life within its state’s boundaries​.​ Its

main focus is to observe maritime economy of the area and to conduct different tests of the

water ways to make sure that the water isn’t too polluted​.​ The Chesapeake Bay Foundation

was created in order to help out with some of these duties​.​ For the most part, the

Chesapeake Bay Foundation educates people on the importance of keeping the Chesapeake

Bay clean from any pollutants​.​ Virginia also has its own sewage regulation​.​ ​Virginia has its

own system to allow people to receive permits to discharge waste into surface water as long

as the waste meets certain criteria​.​ The Virginia Discharge Elimination System grants

permits to Virginia’s businesses so that they can discharge the waste ("Virginia Pollutant

Discharge Elimination System Permit Program," n​.​d​.​)​.​ Within Virginia, each city has the

responsibility to monitor the water quality of inlets and smaller bodies of water​.

Virginia Beach

Virginia Beach does not have specific water quality laws, but instead follows all the

Environmental Protection Agency’s codes​.​ There are organizations in Virginia Beach that
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push for better laws​.​ The Lynnhaven River NOW organization wants to clean up the

Lynnhaven River and keep it from becoming more polluted​.​ It also focuses on creating fun

activities that teach Virginia Beach citizens about the beauty of the waterways​. ​Over half of

the population of Virginia Beach live within the Lynnhaven River watershed (Lynnhaven

River NOW, 2015)​.​ The organization pushes for better regulation regarding storm drain

runoff. They want the water to be treated before entering the water so that it does not affect

the way that the oysters and other wildlife function (Lynnhaven River NOW, 2015)​.​ Over

the last fifteen years, the Lynnhaven River NOW organization has taught children and adults

what affect people have on the environment and helped change the way we treat our

waterways​.

Conclusion

Pollution messes with the ocean’s natural equilibrium​.​ Without the legislation that

we have developed, the oceans would be be in a worse position. Governments have

educated their citizens about the negative effects trash and chemicals have on marine life​.

But, there is still more to be done​.​ Carbon dioxide is not seen as an ocean killer, the media

and government portrays it has a greenhouse gas that is causing global warming. Ocean

acidification is the next issue that needs to be addressed on a global level. If our oceans

become anymore acidic, we will see a mass extinction occur both in the water and on land.
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By adding tighter regulations on carbon dioxide emissions and having more regulations on

keeping the oceans clean, we will save our seas.

References
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17

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