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Colorado's Water Quality Control Act is responsive to the federal Clean Water Act. <br />Again it was Congress' design to allow the several states, who qualified and met <br />federal standards, to handle issuance of discharge permits and enforcement. The Act <br />of Dec. 27, 1977, in subsection (b), inserted "[i]t is the policy of Congress that the <br />States manage the construction grant program under this Act and implement the <br />permit programs under sections 402 and 404 of this Act," 33 U.S.C.S. § 1251(b). This <br />was further implemented by, id. § 1342(b): <br />§ 1342. National pollutant discharge elimination system <br />(b) State permit programs At any time after the promulgation of <br />the guidelines required by subsection (h)(2) of section 304 [304(i)(2)] of <br />this Act [33 USCS § 1314(i)(2)], the Governor of each State desiring to <br />administer its own permit program for discharges into navigable waters <br />within its jurisdiction may submit to the Administrator a full and complete <br />description of the program it proposes to establish and administer under <br />State law or under an interstate compact.... The Administrator shall <br />approve each such submitted program unless ... . <br />Colorado responsively adopted its Water Quality Control Act (CWQCA), 11A COLO. <br />REV. STAT. §§ 25 -8 -101 to -703 (1989 Repl. Vol.). <br />That CWQCA is a state permit program envisioned by the federal Act is not <br />in doubt. See id. §§ - 103(8) and - 501(1), (3). The means of control is by prohibiting <br />the "discharge [of] any pollutant into any state water from a point source without first <br />having obtained a permit from the division for such discharge ...." Id. § - 501(1). <br />The Colorado Water Quality Control Act created the Water Quality Control <br />24 The Federal Water Pollution Control Act has been in effect longer than Colorado's <br />Water Quality Control Act. The federal Act has been amended numerous times and is now <br />embodied in what is commonly referred to as the Clean Water Act, 33 U.S.C.S. §§ 1251 -1376. <br />Mid - Continent Answer Brief <br />- 28 - Appeal No. 93 CA 297 <br />