Clean Water Advocacy - Newsroom - AMSA in the News
The Canadian Press
Copyright (c) 2002 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Thursday, October 17, 2002
U.S. industry, sewage-treatment plants, exceed legal water pollution limits
AP
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Four of five wastewater treatment plants and
chemical and industrial facilities in the United States pollute
waterways beyond what their U.S. government permits allow, government
data compiled by an environmental group shows.
More than 90 per cent of the plants and facilities in Ohio, New
Hampshire, Rhode Island, Iowa, Puerto Rico, Maine, West Virginia,
Delaware, New York and Connecticut exceeded permit limits between 1999
and 2001, said Thursday's report by the U.S. Public Interest Research
Group.
The average excess was 10 times what the permit called for, said the
report in which U.S. PIRG analyzed Environmental Protection Agency
records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
"Polluters are breaking the law, not only frequently but
flagrantly," said the report's author, Alison Cassady, research
director for U.S. PIRG.
EPA officials had no comment. There also was no immediate comment from
the American Chemistry Council, a trade group.
But a spokesman for operators of publicly owned sewage-treatment
plants disputed some of the report's conclusions.
"This notion that you can simply enforce everything away is simply
untrue," said Adam Krantz of the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage
Agencies.
"We are the guardians of the Clean Water Act. We are not
polluters."
Releases of the worst toxic chemicals, those known or suspected to
cause cancer and other serious health effects, averaged eight times more
than is permitted under the Clean Water Act, the report said.
For those chemicals, the states or territories with the highest
percentage of facilities in violation _ each with more than a third out
of compliance _ are Puerto Rico, Ohio, Rhode Island, the Virgin Islands,
the District of Columbia, New York, Arizona, Massachusetts, West
Virginia and Indiana.
The report, released a day ahead of the 30th anniversary of the Clean
Water Act, found:
_81 per cent, or 5,116 of 6,332 major facilities, exceeded their
permits at least once between 1999 and 2001.
_262 major facilities exceeded their permits for at least 10 reporting
periods during that time.