Polluters Flagrantly Violating Clean Water Act On 30th Anniversary: U.S. PIRG Report Finds 81 Percent Breaking The Law

Washington, DC - More than one in four (28 percent) major polluters violated legal limits for discharging chemicals known or suspected to cause cancer and other serious health effects in a recent three-year period, with average violations of more than eight times the legal limit (849 percent), according to a new report released today by U.S. PIRG. More than 81 percent of U.S. polluters exceeded their Clean Water Act permit limits at least once in the period; the average violation was ten times the legal limit.

In Gross Violation: How Polluters are Flooding America's Waterways with Toxic Chemicals was released on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. While many improvements in water quality have been made, 40 percent of the nation's waterways are deemed unsafe for fishing and swimming. As the Bush administration pursues proposals to cut the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) enforcement staff for 2003 and to weaken crucial Clean Water Act programs, the new report shows that for many toxic chemicals, polluters are violating legal pollution levels by large margins.

"Government records show that polluters regularly threaten public health and break the law—with highly toxic chemicals and at levels many times higher than legally allowed," said U.S. PIRG Environmental Health Advocate Jeremiah Baumann. "It is unacceptable that with such a weak enforcement record, the Bush administration would propose cutting enforcement and weakening the law."

Analyzing previously unreleased EPA data spanning January 1, 1999 through December 31, 2001, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, U.S. PIRG researchers found that polluters repeatedly violated the law, often for high hazard chemicals, and often by egregious amounts. Additional findings include: