Founded 1972 Area served United States Revenue $8,240,346 (2015) | Location Washington, D.C. President & CEO Robert Wendelgass | |
Website www.cleanwateraction.org | ||
Clean Water Action is an American environmental advocacy group. Created in 1972, Clean Water Action focuses on canvassing and gaining support for political issues and candidates. It is a 501(c)(4) organization.
Contents
History
During the late 1960s water pollution was spreading in many parts of the country, with a burning Cuyahoga River in northeast Ohio and biologically dead Lake Erie among the visible examples of wider problems. David Zwick was a young law school student when Ralph Nader recruited him to a task force researching water pollution problems. After a two-year tour of America's most polluted waters, Zwick authored Water Wasteland and then founded Clean Water Action to address the issues outlined in his book.
Zwick founded Clean Water Action in 1972 as a grassroots and lobbying organization. The fledgling organization's goal was to enact many of Water Wasteland's platforms of recommended changes into law. To reach this goal, Zwick outlined a grassroots strategy of door-to-door canvassing and public education. Zwick contributed to the Clean Water Act.
In 1986, Clean Water Action, the United States Public Interest Research Group and the National Campaign Against Toxic Hazards published a report claiming the Environmental Protection Agency was failing to properly enforce the federal Superfund toxic waste cleanup program.
Political advocacy
Clean Water Action endorsed Democratic President Barack Obama for re-election in 2012. Clean Water Action opposes hydraulic fracturing, also known as fracking.