The time has arrived in our environmental awakening for both industrialists and environmentalists to start a dialogue and view the world through the other‘s eyes. An area to begin this cooperation is the Clean Water Act Amendments of 1972. The issue is not whether we are going to have clean water, but how we will have it. In 1972, Congress enacted the Clean Water Amendment and set up a three-phase process to achieve the goal of clean water. The federal government was to set effluent standards for the country. Ruckelshaus discusses these water quality standards. He contends that industries in the United States will soon meet the best practical standard. If the government forces the private sector and local governments to spend substantial amounts of money to meet the best available treatment standard, it will yield no public benefit, which is bad public policy.