SEJ
Published on SEJ (https://www.sej.org)

Home > REPORT: Clean Water Act Violations Occur Routinely

REPORT: Clean Water Act Violations Occur Routinely [1]

October 24, 2007

 In 2005, at least 3,600 facilities violated their water discharge permits more than 24,000 times, according to a US Public Interest Research Group report [2] released Oct. 11, 2007.

  • USPIRG: Christy Leavitt, [3] 202-546-9707 x313.
The violators made up more than half the major facilities reviewed by the advocacy group, after it acquired the data from EPA via a FOIA request. Many facilities dumped nearly four times what they were allowed in their permit, and some exceeded their permit six-fold. Many other smaller facilities that may be polluting weren't included in the study.

In the report, USPIRG breaks out the violations in a variety of ways, such as by state, county, number of violations, and frequency of violations. You can also download a spread sheet for all the identified major violators in each state (except for Oregon, which has not provided data to EPA since 2004).

  • Example of media coverage: San Francisco Chronicle, Oct. 12, 2007, [4] by Zachary Coile.
  •  

 

SEJ Publication Types: 
TipSheet [5]
Topics on the Beat: 
Laws & Regulations [6]
Water & Oceans [7]
Environmental Politics [8]
Region: 
National (U.S.) [9]
Visibility: 
Public [10]
  • Contact Us  |
  • Donate  |
  • Join  |
  • Members  |
  • Privacy & Security Policies  |
  • Reach SEJ Members  |
  • Renew  |
  • Site Map
The Society of Environmental Journalists
1629 K Street NW, Suite 300, Washington, DC 20006
Telephone: (202) 558-2055
Email: sej@sej.org
© 2025 The Society of Environmental Journalists. All Rights Reserved.
All graphics © SEJ, unless otherwise stated.

Source URL:https://www.sej.org/publications/tipsheet/report-clean-water-act-violations-occur-routinely

Links
[1] https://www.sej.org/publications/tipsheet/report-clean-water-act-violations-occur-routinely [2] http://static.uspirg.org/reports.asp?id2=35946 [3] mailto:cleavitt@pirg.org [4] http://www.sejarchive.org/go/071024-2.htm [5] https://www.sej.org/category/sej-publication/tipsheet [6] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/laws [7] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/water [8] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/environmental-politics [9] https://www.sej.org/category/region/national [10] https://www.sej.org/taxonomy/term/81