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Executive Summary
When drafting the Clean Water Act in 1972, legislators set the goals
of making all U.S. waterways fishable and swimmable by 1983 and
eliminating the discharge of pollutants into the nation’s waterways by
1985. More than 30 years later, we are far from realizing the Clean
Water Act’s original vision.
Using information provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, this report
analyzes all major facilitiesa violating their Clean Water Act permits
between July 1, 2003 and December 31, 2004, reveals the type of
pollutants they are discharging into our waterways, and details the
extent to which these facilities are exceeding their permit levels.
More than two decades after the drafters of the Clean Water Act hoped
that all waterways would be pollution-free, we find that facilities
across the country continue to discharge more pollution into our
waterways than allowed under the law.
Key findings include:
Thousands of facilities continue to exceed their Clean Water Act permits.
• Nationally, more than 3,700 major facilities (62%)
exceeded their Clean Water Act permit limits at least once between July
1, 2003 and December 31, 2004.
• The ten U.S. states that allowed the highest percentage
of major facilities to exceed their Clean Water Act permit limits at
least once are West Virginia, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York,
Iowa, Ohio, New Hampshire, Utah, the District of Columbia, and Maine.
• The eight U.S. counties with the most facilities
exceeding their Clean Water Act permits at least once in this period
are Harris County, Texas; Worcester County, Massachusetts; New Haven
County, Connecticut; Allegheny County, Pennsylvania; Hartford County,
Connecticut; Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana; Erie County, New York; and
Fairfield County, Connecticut.
These facilities often exceed their permits more than once and for more than one pollutant.
• Nationally, 436 major facilities exceeded their Clean
Water Act permit limits for at least half of the monthly reporting
periods between July 1, 2003 and December 31, 2004.
• Thirty-five (35) facilities exceeded their Clean Water
Act permits during every monthly reporting period between July 1, 2003
and December 31, 2004.
• The 3,700 major facilities exceeding their permits in the
time period studied reported more than 29,000 exceedances of their
Clean Water Act permit limits. This means that many facilities exceeded
their permits more than once and for more than one pollutant.
• The ten U.S. states that allowed the most exceedances of
Clean Water Act permit limits between July 1, 2003 and December 31,
2004 are Ohio, Texas, New York, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Tennessee,
Indiana, West Virginia, Massachusetts, and Illinois. These facilities
often exceed their permits egregiously.
• Major facilities exceeding their Clean Water Act permits,
on average, exceeded their permit limits by about 275%, or almost four
times the allowed amount.
• The ten U.S. states that allowed the highest average
permit exceedance between July 1, 2003 and December 31, 2004 are
Hawaii, Wyoming, South Dakota, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Indiana,
Mississippi, Delaware, Illinois, and Georgia.
• Nationally, major facilities reported approximately 2,500
instances between July 1, 2003 and December 31, 2004 in which they
exceeded their Clean Water Act permit limits by at least six-fold
(500%).
• The U.S. states that allowed at least 100 exceedances of
at least 500% are Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee,
Texas, and Massachusetts.
At a time when our federal leaders should be working with the states
to clean up our waterways and enforce the law, the Bush administration
has suggested, proposed, or enacted numerous policies that would weaken
the Clean Water Act and threaten the future of America’s rivers, lakes,
streams, wetlands, and oceans. Rather than weakening the Clean Water
Act, the Bush administration and our elected officials should tighten
enforcement of Clean Water Act programs; strengthen standards to
protect our rivers, lakes, streams, wetlands, and coastal waters; and
ensure the public’s right to know about water pollution by increasing
and improving access to accurate and comprehensive compliance data and
discharge reporting.
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