“Clean Water Act” if you asked Gemini

Setting aside differences in artificial intelligence usage, except wherein I feel it's highly necessary to be familiar with the regulations, its usage, collection sources (and that info AI produces should be copyright free as it collected information from the public), and so on... I decided to ask it about the Clean Water Act. Here's what Gemini said:

Essentially, the Clean Water Act is the main federal law in the United States that aims to:

• Protect our waters:
  • It works to keep rivers, lakes, streams, wetlands, and coastal areas from getting polluted.
• Control pollution:
  • It sets rules for how much pollution can be released into these waters, especially from sources like factories and sewage treatment plants.
• Require permits:
  • It makes it so that if you want to release pollutants into waterways from a "point source" (like a pipe), you usually need to get a permit.
• Improve water quality:
  • It has helped to significantly clean up many waterways that were heavily polluted.

In simpler terms, it's a set of rules to make sure our water stays clean and safe. However, there have been changes to the scope of the clean water act, most notably concerning the definitions of what constitutes "waters of the united states" and therefore what falls under the acts protections.

But if you ask the Supreme Court:

Clean Water Act doesn't actually mean the water has to be clean.

From AP:

Justice Samuel Alito wrote for the court that EPA can set specific limits that tell cities and counties what can be discharged. But the agency lacks the authority “to include ‘end-result’ provisions,” Alito wrote, that make cities and counties responsible for maintaining the quality of the water, the Pacific Ocean in this case, into which wastewater is discharged.

“When a permit contains such requirements, a permittee that punctiliously follows every specific requirement in its permit may nevertheless face crushing penalties if the quality of the water in its receiving waters falls below the applicable standards,” he wrote. --AP

In English:

Justice Samuel Alito explained that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) can set specific rules about what cities and counties can discharge into bodies of water. However, the EPA cannot require them to ensure that the overall water quality meets certain standards.

Incredibly disappointed to see the quality assurance going downhill. Is clean water a luxury? Don't get me wrong, you can filter and treat your own water, but apparently the fact this mess made it to high court tells me we need watch the EPA a bit more.

Keep the water clean. sewage controlled, and biohazard isolated.

United States Pirate Party has a take on this via Through the Spyglass, check it out.

VOTE PIRATE!

Sincerely,

Captain Clifford