Water pollution became a serious health hazard beginning in the 1800s when human waste was deposited directly into water bodies. These biological contaminants lead to severe outbreaks of typhoid fever and other deadly ailments. State and local governments began to regulate such disposals on an ad hoc basis and continued to do so with little success up to World War II. After the war the federal government, while not directly becoming involved with water regulation, nevertheless funded many state water pollution control efforts. These federal programs had little effect on the growing problem.

In 1972 the first aggressive federal water pollution legislation was passed as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act Amendments (FWPCA). Today the FWPCA is known as the Clean Water Act (CWA). The CWA has had remarkable success eliminating the so-called "point-source" pollutants. Point-source pollutants are those that flow from a particular point, like a discharge from a pipe into a river or a drain into a sewer. Point-source regulation has been fairly easy as the sources of this type of pollution are easily identifiable. Non-point-source pollutants are another matter. These are pollutants that seep, drip, ooze, and trickle from broad contaminated areas. A good example of a non-point-source polluter could be a hog farm where the fecal matter from the hogs is spread out over several acres of pasture. This waste then makes its way into the ground and eventually into the water supply. While it is easy to identify and turn off a pipe it is much more difficult to do so with non-point-sources of pollution.

The non-point-source pollutants continue to cause significant problems today. As a matter of fact, each year over 1,500 fishing bans are issued and thirty million Americans drink from water sources that fail established public health standards. Of the non-point-source pollutants, the majority come from municipal sewage systems that overflow during heavy rains and industrial polluters who discharge their waste products into neighboring waters. Even though the federal regulatory structure is extensive and the effort of regulators valiant, the United States will continue to struggle with water quality issues for many years to come.