Soil conservationists and the uses of law

Abstract

AS of the year 1987, Americans can at long last say the basic legal tools are in place to protect our nation's soils. Earlier this year Congress enacted amendments to the Clean Water Act, underscoring the national priority accorded the issue by designating the bill H.R.1. In this landmark legislation Congress finally took up in a serious way the long-stalemated question of nonpoint-source water pollution. The result was a $400 million authorization and a mandate in the Water Quality Act of 1987 to keep our precious soil on farmland, range-land, and timberland, and out of creeks, streams, and rivers. “[I]t is the national policy that programs for the control of nonpoint sources of pollution be developed and implemented in an expeditious manner so as to enable the goals of this Act to be met through the control of both point and nonpoint sources of pollustion.” Other overriding developments have assisted in establishing a firm legal structure to wage final combat against excessive soil erosion. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, in the Indicrn Cemetery case, upheld the right of states to enforce water quality standards on public lands and …