Watershed Protection Approach: An Overview

This document describes efforts with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other State, Federal, and local agencies to refocus existing water pollution control programs to operate in a more comprehensive and coordinated manner. The concepts described in this document are not new and have been applied to a limited extent in the past. There is, however, a growing consensus that the pollution and habitat degradation problems now facing society can best be solved by following a basin-wide approach that takes into account the dynamic relationships that sustain natural resources and their beneficial uses. EPA uses the term Watershed Protection Approach to encompass these ideas.