This bulletin presents a brief overview of past Federal water quality legislation in order to provide a background for understanding current legislative initiatives in the Clean Water, Safe Drinking Water, and Coastal Zone Acts. Three trends in the legislation are identified. First, as noted previously, there has been a legislative movement towards addressing nonpoint pollution sources including agriculture. A second trend has been a movement away from voluntary approaches in favor of more regulatory requirements. Finally, there is an increasing legislative focus on setting policies at a watershed level.