The council's Water Program Director, Alicia Vasto, says the goal of the law passed in 1972 was to make all lakes and rivers in the country "swimable" and "fishable" by the 1980's. And obviously that goal was not met.
"But it certainly did clean up pollution from a lot of the point sources that we like to talk about which are things like water treatment plants, and factories and different industries that discharge directly into waterways."
She thinks an important source of pollution was left out of the Clean Water Act - agriculture was exempted from its provisions but should be included if the law is ever updated.
"Fertilizer pollution, especially from manure and commercial synthetic fertilizers is where we have a lot of trouble and challenges with water pollution."
Vasto says we should celebrate what the law has accomplished, but also think about how it could be improved.
Tuesday night's anniversary party for the Clean Water Act will be held in downtown Davenport at the Front Street Brewery from 5:30 to 7 pm.
