WASHINGTON — Four of five wastewater treatment plants and chemical and industrial facilities in the United States pollute waterways beyond what their federal permits allow, according to a study released yesterday by the US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG).
PIRG said its research shows more than 90 percent 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, the
Associated Press (AP) reported.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Association of Metropolitan Sewerage Agencies took issue with the report, saying information has been exaggerated.
The average exceeding of permitted discharges was 10 times what permits called for, claimed the PIRG report, which it said analyzed EPA records.
"Polluters are breaking the law, not only frequently but flagrantly," said the report's author, Alison Cassady, PIRG research director, according to the article.
EPA spokesman Joe Martyak said the risks were exaggerated in the report; the facilities' performances were calculated monthly rather than every six months as the EPA does, AP reported.
Martyak said some violations are due to stormwater runoff or equipment upgrades that are unintentional, the news service reported.
Martyak said there is still room for work to be done, but it is not as dire a situation as the report conveys, AP said.
"This notion that you can simply enforce everything away is simply untrue," AMSA spokesman Adam Krantz told AP. "We are the guardians of the Clean Water Act. We are not polluters."
Releases of the toxic chemicals known or suspected to cause cancer and other serious health effects, averaged eight times more than is permitted under the Clean Water Act, the PIRG report said, according to AP.
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 article said.
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