Know Your Rights

You have the right to plentiful and edible fish.
You are the owner of your stream and river, lake, bay and coast.
You have the right to use them as long as you don’t interfere with the use of them by anyone else — and as long as they are free from pollution and destruction by our hands, there’s plenty for all.

medieval code
In the sixth century the Roman Emperor Justinian ordered the codification of imperial legal doctrine as the Corpus Iurus Civilis [Body of Civil Law]. The Justinian Code spread throughout the Roman Empire and forms the basis for English, and now U.S., Common Law. Justinian Code spells out the Public Trust Doctrine, which says that the public — no individual, no government, no corporation and no polluter — owns our waterways.

fishable & swimmable
U.S. Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972. The goals of the law are broad and ambitious: fishable and swimmable waterways and zero discharge of pollution into our rivers, lakes and coastal waters by 1985. We’ve missed the deadline. But the goals and the law remain in effect.

The right to clean water is almost universally recognized worldwide. The United Nations Charter and the legally binding 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights implicitly and explicitly recognize the human right to clean water.

codex justinianus (528)
Book II.

Of Things.
I. Divisions of Things.
In the preceding book we have treated of the law of persons. Let us now speak of things, which either are in our patrimony, or not in our patrimony. For some things by the law of nature are common to all; some are public; some belong to corporate bodies, and some belong to no one. Most things are the property of individuals who acquire them in different ways, as will appear hereafter.

1. By the law of nature these things are common to mankind — the air, running water, the sea, and consequently the shores of the sea. No one, therefore, is forbidden to approach the seashore, provided that he respects habitationes, monuments, and buildings which are not, like the sea, subject only to the law of nations.

2. All rivers and ports are public; hence the right of fishing in a port,
or in rivers, is common to all men.

3. The seashore extends as far as the greatest winter flood runs up.

WATER POLLUTION PREVENTION
AND CONTROL ACT (1972)
(33 U.S.C. 1251 et seq.)

AN ACT To provide for water pollution control activities in the Public Health Service of the Federal Security Agency and in the Federal Works Agency, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,

title I—research and related programs

DECLARATION OF GOALS AND POLICY

SEC. 101. (a) The objective of this Act is to restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the Nation’s waters. In order to achieve this objective it is hereby declared that, consistent with the provisions of this Act—

(1) it is the national goal that the discharge of pollutants into the
navigable waters be eliminated by 1985;

(2) it is the national goal that wherever attainable, an interim goal of water quality which provides for the protection and propagation of fish, shellfish, and wildlife and provides for recreation in and on the water be achieved by July 1, 1983;

(3) it is the national policy that the discharge of toxic pollutants in toxic amounts be prohibited