Cover title. Shipping list no.: 98-0264-P. "February 14, 1998"--Letter.

Setting the stage: successes, challenges, and new directions--Clean water successes and challenges--Ten principles for restoring and protecting America's waters--Actions to strengthen core clean water programs--Clean waters: healthy people--Enhance natural resources stewardship--Strong polluted runoff controls--Improve information and citizens' right to know--America's watersheds: the key to clean water--Unified watershed assessments--Restore aquatic system health on a watershed basis--Build strong partnerships to speed restoration and protection--Watershed management framework. This book provides a blueprint for restoring & protecting the nation's precious water resources. This Action Plan builds on the Clinton Administration's accomplishments over the past five years & proposes aggressive new actions to strengthen the program. The key element is a new cooperative approach to watershed protection in which state, tribal, federal & local governments, & the public first identify the watersheds and the most critical water quality problems & then work together to focus resources & implement effective strategies to solve those problems. The Action Plan also includes new initiatives to reduce public health threats, improve the stewardship of natural resources, strenghten polluted runoff controls, & make water quality information more accessible to public.