The Clean Water Act was established in 1972 and organizes the basic structure and regulating standards for the production of clean, safe water. With so many pollutants in the air and ground coming from all kinds of industries, this act ensures the "implement[ation] [of] pollution control programs such as setting wastewater standards for [the] industry" (Environmental Protection Agency, 2022).

The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System was created by the CWA and is managed by the EPA to produce permits for qualifying concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, and other facilities for disposing of any of their waste. The NPDES essentially ensures that those who are permitted to dispose of pollutants into water systems do so responsibly and by following regulations established to ensure clean drinking water. Some conflict arises when these measures limit the requirements for who is obligated to have a NPDES to those industries large enough, which in turn results in many smaller farms being able to discharge pollutants into the water system without consequences. In addition, the EPA "has granted authority to forty-five states to choose which operations to designate as CAFOs", which has created an arrangement in which the states administer the permits (Moran, 2022).