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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 released Oct. 11, 2007.
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).
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