MADISON, WI — The Midwest Environmental Advocates (MEA), an environmental group here, claimed in a report that the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) has failed to enforce the Clean Water Act.
The report said an analysis of DNR records shows that 28 to 46 percent of major industrial facilities with discharge permits were in "significant non-compliance" with state pollution guidelines from 1990 to 1998, as were 31 to 55 percent of municipal facilities, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.
DNR sent violation notices to an average of 10 percent of those facilities and referred 2.5 percent of them to the Justice Department. The MEA report claims the DNR failed to collect between $14 million and $248 million for potential water pollution violations in 1998, the newspaper reported.
The DNR said the report is misleading because the agency resolved 90 percent of the cited cases administratively before issuing a notice of violation. Susan Sylvester, administrator of the DNR's Water Division in Madison, said the report focused on larger facilities, but the DNR has shifted its focus to smaller facilities that tend to be less compliant, according to the article.
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