In an interview two months ago, new EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson promised her agency would be stepping up enforcement of the Clean Water Act.

After all, as a recent study by the Government Accountability Office revealed, the EPA and the states have done a poor job of achieving the law's goal of cleaning up the nation's waterways. And as a recent New York Times series reminded everyone, water pollution causes human health problems that afflict everyone, most especially the young.

Today the EPA unveiled its new action plan for boosting its enforcement efforts. The three main steps:

*Target enforcement to the most important water pollution problems
*Strengthen oversight of the states' efforts at enforcement
*Use 21st century technology to improve transparency and accountability for the public

It won't be easy. As the full report notes, since the act passed in 1972, "the regulated universe has expanded from roughly 100,000 point sources to nearly one million far more dispersed sources such as animal feeding lots and stormwater runoff."

And any move by the agency to be more vigorous in enforcing the law is likely to face resistance from the states, as has already happened in Florida and West Virginia, where concerns about cost and private property rights took precedence over health concerns.