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Executive Summary
October
18, 2007 marks the 35th anniversary of the Clean Water Act, a landmark law
intended to restore and maintain the physical, chemical and biological
integrity of the nation’s waters. In passing the
Clean
Water Act, Congress set the goals of eliminating the discharge of pollutants into
the nation’s waterways by 1985 and making all U.S. waterways fishable and
swimmable by 1983. Although we have made significant progress in improving
water quality since the passage of the Clean Water Act, we are far from
realizing the Act’s original vision.
Using information provided by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in
response to a Freedom of Information Act request, this report analyzes all
major facilities that exceeded their
Clean Water Act permits between January 1, 2005 and December 31, 2005; reveals
the type of pollutants they are discharging into our waterways; and details the
extent to which these facilities are exceeding their permit levels.
More than two decades after the drafters of the 1972 Clean Water Act intended
for the discharge of all pollutants to be eliminated, facilities across the
country continue to violate pollution limits, at times egregiously.
Findings include:
- 128 facilities in Florida reported more than 910 exceedances of their
Clean Water Act permits in 2005.
- Hillsborough County ranked 11th
in the nation for the number of major facilities exceeding their Clean Water
Act permits. Polk County was 16th and Duval County 22nd.
-
On average, Florida facilities exceeding their Clean Water Act permits did so
by 216 percent.
- Polluters in Florida reported 51 instances in which they exceeded
their Clean Water Act permit by at least 500 percent over the legal limit.
Our federal
leaders should be working with the states to address this illegal pollution and
clean up all of our waterways. Over the last six years the Bush administration
has suggested, proposed or enacted numerous policies that undermine the Clean
Water Act and threaten the future of America’s rivers, lakes, streams, wetlands
and oceans. The administration has not only undercut the Clean Water Act, but
also eliminated Clean Water Act protections from key waterways altogether.
Rather than
weakening the Clean Water Act, the Bush administration and state officials
should: restore Clean Water Act protections to all waterways; tighten
enforcement of the Clean Water Act; strengthen implementation of the Clean
Water Act to better protect our rivers, lakes and streams; and ensure the public’s
right to know about water pollution by increasing and improving access to
compliance data and discharge reporting.
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