Final answer:
The Clean Water Act establishes quality standards for surface waters and empowers the Environmental Protection Agency to enforce these standards, but it does not control all phases of water production. The true statement is O it establishes quality standards for surface waters.
Step-by-step explanation:
The Clean Water Act (CWA) is an important environmental law enacted in 1972, directed at regulating the discharge of pollutants into the United States waterways and ensuring that surface waters meet specific standards. One of the true statements about the CWA is that it establishes quality standards for surface waters.
This key piece of legislation assigns the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the responsibility to enforce the provisions of the Act, including setting water quality standards, issuing permits for discharging pollutants, and taking enforcement action against violators.
While it does indeed regulate pollutants that may cause harm to health and the environment, the Act itself does not regulate all phases of water production; this is a broader effort that involves other laws and regulations too. Furthermore, the EPA writes and enforces regulations based on the laws passed by Congress, such as the CWA, rather than writing laws itself.