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Healthy Waters Coalition

The Healthy Waters Coalition is a diverse group of municipal water, wastewater groups, conservation organizations, state agencies, and agriculture and forest operations led by NACWA. The Coalition is primarily focused on strengthening links between our working agricultural lands and the quality of our Nation’s waters.

According to State water quality reports, 80,000 miles of rivers and streams, 2.5 million acres of lakes, reservoirs and ponds, 78% of the assessed continental U.S. coastal areas and more than 30% of estuaries are impaired due to excessive levels of nutrients. In all, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency attributes excess nutrients as the direct or indirect cause of impairments in over 50% of impaired river and stream miles; over 50% of impaired lake acres; and nearly 60% of impaired bay and estuarine square miles. In the majority of these waters, nutrient run-off from agricultural lands is the dominant source of the nutrient impairments. Congress has an opportunity in the upcoming Farm Bill reauthorization to make important strides toward reducing nutrient contamination in our waters.