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In Gross Violation: How Polluters Are Flooding America's Waterways With Toxic Chemicals 2002-10-17 GrossViolation.pdf

Executive Summary

October 18, 2002 marks the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, landmark legislation that set the ambitious goals of making all waterways fishable and swimmable by 1983 and eliminating the discharge of pollutants into the nation’s waterways by 1985. Although we have made important strides in water quality since the birth of the Clean Water Act, we are far from realizing its original vision.

In August 2002, PennEnvironment released its annual report, Permit to Pollute, documenting the lax enforcement of the Clean Water Act by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and state environmental agencies. We found that nearly 30% of major facilities examined were in Significant Non-Compliance with their Clean Water Act permits for at least one quarter during the 15 months beginning January 1, 2000 and ending March 31, 2001. 1

Using previously non-public information provided by EPA in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request, this report builds on the findings of Permit to Pollute. Rather than focusing on facilities categorized by EPA as in Significant Noncompliance for permit exceedances or paperwork violations, for the first time we analyze all major facilities exceeding their Clean Water Act permits, reveal the type of pollutants they are discharging illegally in our waterways and detail the extent to which these facilities are exceeding effluent permit levels. We focus on permit exceedances for high hazard pollutants: toxicants known or suspected to cause cancer, reproductive and developmental disorders, and other serious non-cancer health effects.

On the Clean Water Act’s 30th anniversary, we find that facilities across the country continue to violate the letter and spirit of the law, at times egregiously, for high hazard chemicals.

Key Findings Include:

Thousands of facilities continue to break the law.

• Nationally, 5,116 major facilities (81%) exceeded their Clean Water Act effluent permit limits at least once between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2001, including 1,768 facilities (28%) for discharging chemicals known or suspected to cause cancer and/or serious non-cancer health effects.
• The ten states or territories that allowed the highest percentage of major facilities to exceed their Clean Water Act effluent permit limits at least once for high hazard chemicals are Puerto Rico, Ohio, Rhode Island, District of Columbia, Virgin Islands, New York, Arizona, Massachusetts, West Virginia and Indiana.

These facilities often break the law more than once and for more than one pollutant.

• Nationally, 262 major facilities exceeded their effluent permit limits for at least 10 reporting periods between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2001 for chemicals known or suspected to cause cancer and/or serious non-cancer health effects.
• Nationally, major facilities reported almost 88,000 exceedances of their Clean Water Act effluent permit limits between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2001, including 15,803 exceedances for discharging chemicals known or suspected to cause cancer and/or serious non-cancer health effects.
• The ten states or territories that allowed the most exceedances of Clean Water Act effluent permit limits between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2001 for high hazard chemicals are Puerto Rico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, New York, Indiana, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Louisiana and Florida.

These facilities often break the law egregiously.

• Major facilities, on average, exceeded their effluent permit limits for high hazard chemicals by 849%, or more than eight times the legal limit, between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2001. 
• Nationally, major facilities reported 1,562 instances between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2001 in which they exceeded their Clean Water Act effluent permit limits for chemicals known or suspected to cause cancer and/or serious non-cancer health effects by at least tenfold (1000%), and 363 instances of violations exceeding 100-fold (10,000%).
• The ten states or territories that allowed the greatest number of egregious permit exceedances—at least 500%, or five times, over the effluent permit limits— between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2001 for high hazard chemicals are Puerto Rico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, West Virginia, Indiana, Louisiana, Missouri, Maine and North Carolina.

At a time when our leaders should be working with the states to address this illegal pollution and make all of our waterways fishable and swimmable, 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 and oceans. Rather than weakening the Clean Water Act, the Bush administration and our elected officials should mark the 30th anniversary of this critical legislation by tightening enforcement of Clean Water Act programs; strengthening standards to protect our rivers, lakes, streams and wetlands; and ensuring the public’s right-to-know about water pollution by increasing and improving access to compliance data and discharge reporting.

1 Richard Caplan. Permit to Pollute. U.S. PIRG Education Fund. August 2002. Available at http://uspirg.org/uspirg.asp?id2=7545.