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NYPIRG: For immediate release
March 23, 2006
Polluters Foul New York’s Waters;
78% Percent Exceeded Clean Water Act Pollution Limits in Recent
18-Month Period
New York, New York More than 78% percent of industrial and
municipal facilities across New York State discharged more pollution
into our waterways than their Clean Water Act permits allow between
July 2003 and December 2004, according to Troubled Waters: An
analysis of Clean Water Act compliance, a new report released
today by the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG).
“Polluters are using America’s waters as their dumping
ground. Instead of solving the problem, the Bush administration
is slashing the EPA’s budget and weakening critical clean
water programs,” said NYPIRG Watershed Protection Coordinator
Cathleen Breen.
While the 1972 Clean Water Act has made significant strides in
cleaning up U.S. waterways, the law’s goals of eliminating
the discharge of pollutants into waterways by 1985 and making
all U.S. waters safe for fishing, swimming and other uses by 1983
have not been reached. Today, more than 40 percent of U.S. waterways
are unsafe for swimming and fishing. In New York, more than 14%
percent of rivers and 75% percent of lakes are impaired.
Using the Freedom of Information Act, NYPIRG obtained data on
facilities’ compliance with the Clean Water Act between
July 1, 2003 and December 31, 2004. NYPIRG researchers found that
polluters repeatedly exceeded their permit limits, often by egregious
amounts.
Additional findings include:
• Nationally, 62 percent of all major industrial and municipal
facilities discharged more pollution into U.S. waterways than
their permits allow at least once during the 18-month period studied.
The average facility exceeded its pollution permit limit by more
than 275 percent, almost four times the legal limit.
• More than 78% of New York’s industrial and municipal
facilities exceeded their Clean Water Act permits at least once
between July 1, 2003 and December 31, 2004. New York ranks fourth
in the country for percentage of facilities exceeding their pollution
permits.
• 271 facilities in New York reported more than 2,000 exceedances
of their Clean Water Act permits during the 18-month period, ranking
New York third in the country for the most exceedances.
• 18 facilities in Erie County; 15 in Niagara; 12 in Orange;
11 each in Oswego and Saint Lawrence, and 10 in Nassau County
exceeded their Clean Water Act permit at least once during this
period. In the unfiltered drinking water supply of the New York
City Watershed, the Yorktown Heights SD WWTP exceeded its permit
13 out of 18 reporting periods.
“All Americans deserve clean water to drink and safe places
to swim and fish. To clean up our waterways, this continuing pollution
must stop,” said Ms. Breen.
Ms. Breen noted that the findings are likely conservative, since
the data that NYPIRG analyzed includes only “major”
facilities and does not include pollution discharged into waters
by the hundreds of thousands of minor facilities across the country.
NYPIRG called on the Bush administration to back off its efforts
to weaken the Clean Water Act and to commit to strengthening enforcement
of this landmark legislation.
In addition, NYPIRG applauded Senator Schumer and House Representatives
Bishop, Israel, McCarthy, Crowley, Nadler, Weiner, Owens, Velazquez,
Rangel, Serrano, Engel, Lowey, McNulty, Hinchey, Boehlert, Walsh,
Higgins and Slaughter for sponsoring the Clean Water Authority
Restoration Act, which ensures all U.S. waters are protected by
the Clean Water Act, and called for the rest of New York’s
congressional delegation to support this important bill.
In order to achieve the goals of the Clean Water Act, NYPIRG recommended
federal and state officials do the following:
• Increase EPA Funding to put more environmental cops on
the beat to identify and punish polluters violating their Clean
Water Act permits, and to fully fund the Clean Water State Revolving
Fund to help communities upgrade their sewer systems.
• Protect all U.S. waters by withdrawing the Bush administration’s
2003 “No Protection” policy that eliminates Clean
Water Act protections for many small streams and wetlands that
feed and clean great waters, and supporting passage of the Clean
Water Authority Restoration Act.
• Strengthen the Clean Water Act by preventing polluters
from profiting from pollution, tightening permitted pollution
limits, revoking the permits of repeat violators, and ensuring
citizens full access to the courts.
“To protect public health and the environment, the Bush
administration and state officials must hold polluters accountable
for their contamination of America’s waterways,” concluded
NYPIRG’s Ms. Breen.
The New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) is New York
State’s largest non-profit, non-partisan student directed
research and advocacy organization. NYPIRG’s primary areas
of focus are environmental protection, public health and government
accountability.
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