For Immediate Release: February 17, 2000

Contact: Jeremiah Baumann Richard Caplan 202-546-9707

Nearly 30 percent of the nation’s largest industrial, municipal, and federal facilities were in serious violation of the Clean Water Act at least once during a recent 15-month period, according to a report released today by U.S. PIRG. Poisoning Our Water: How the Government Permits Pollution also documents nearly 270 million pounds of toxic pollution released into U.S. waters in 1997.

"While At the same time that 40 percent of the nation’s waterways are considered too polluted for safe fishing or swimming, our report shows that the government is letting polluters continue to use our waterways as dumping grounds for toxic chemicals," said Jeremiah Baumann, Environmental Advocate with U.S. PIRG. "Despite the clear intentions of the Clean Water Act to eliminate the pollution of our waters, polluters continue to brazenly violate the law."

The U.S. PIRG report documents and analyzes the dangerous levels of pollutants discharged to America’s waters by compiling toxic chemical releases reported to the Toxics Release Inventory for 1997, the most recent data available. U.S. PIRG looked at the behavior of water polluters nationwide by documenting violations of the Clean Water Act between October of 1997 and December of 1998, recorded in the U.S. EPA’s Permit Compliance System database, obtained by U.S. PIRG under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

Major findings of the report include:

• 29.4% (1,958 out of 6,670) of major facilities were in significant non-compliance during the period examined.
  
  
• Nearly 270 million pounds (269,134,333) of toxic chemicals were released to American waterways during 1997, either directly or through water treatment facilities.
  
  
• The bodies of water receiving the greatest amounts of toxic chemicals in 1997 were the Mississippi River, the Connequenessing Creek (PA), the Brazos River (TX), the Alafia River (FL), and the Houston Ship Channel (TX).
  
  
• The states with the greatest amounts of toxic pollution were Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Texas, Mississippi, Ohio, Florida, and New Jersey.
  
  
• The parent corporations with the greatest amounts of toxic pollution to waterways were Armco Inc., PCS Nitrogen Fertilizer LP, BASF Corporation, E. I. Du Pont De Nemours & Co., and Vicksburg Chemical Co.
  
  
• The ten states with the greatest number of major facilities violating permits were Texas, Florida, Ohio, New York, Alabama, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Tennessee, and North Carolina.
  
  
• The ten states with the highest percentage of major facilities in significant noncompliance (SNC) with clean water permits SNC were Utah, Florida, Rhode Island, Ohio, Alabama, Tennessee, Connecticut, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Indiana.
  
  

The summary of toxic chemical releases includes more than 600 chemicals identified by EPA as being hazardous to human health or the environment. In particular, the U.S. PIRG report summarizes discharges of cancer-causing chemicals, chemicals that persist in the environment, and chemicals with the potential to cause reproductive problems ranging from birth defects to reduced fertility. Polluters discharged nearly 11 million pounds of these compounds into U.S. Waters in 1997.

"With so much pollution going into our waterways, it is outrageous that more than one in four polluting facilities are in violation of the law," commented Richard Caplan of U.S. PIRG.

"By looking at known sources of toxic pollution and known violators of our clean water laws, this report demonstrates common-sense steps that should be taken to address our water quality problems," added Caplan. "We need clean water now, and we have to start by requiring polluters to obey the law."

In order to increase compliance with permits and move toward the zero-discharge goals of the Clean Water Act, U.S. PIRG recommends the following:

1. Mandatory minimum penalties should be set for facilities that violate their permits; the amount of the penalty should be set to prevent polluters from profiting by breaking the law.
2. Obstacles to citizen suits should be removed, including allowing citizens to sue Federal facilities.
3. Congress should pass H.R. 1657, which would expand the Toxics Release Inventory to require all polluting facilities to report their pollution, and to include information on the use of toxic chemicals rather than on solely ‘end-of-the-pipe’ releases.

"We urge Congress and the President to listen to the public’s demands for clean water. They should expand the public’s right to know about toxic chemical use and pollution, and ensure strict enforcement of the law," said concluded U.S. PIRG’s Baumann.

U.S. PIRG is the national office for the State PIRGs, a nationwide network of nonprofit, nonpartisan public interest advocacy groups.