More than one in four (28 percent) major polluters violated legal limits for discharging chemicals known or suspected to cause cancer and other serious health effects in a recent three-year period, with average violations of more than eight times the legal limit (849 percent), according to a new report by U.S. Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG). More than 81 percent of U.S. polluters exceeded their Clean Water Act permit limits at least once in the period; the average violation was 10 times the legal limit.
In Gross Violation: How Polluters are Flooding America's Waterways with Toxic Chemicals was released on the eve of the 30th anniversary of the Clean Water Act. While many improvements in water quality have been made, 40 percent of the nation's waterways are deemed unsafe for fishing and swimming. The new report shows that for many toxic chemicals, polluters are violating legal pollution levels by large margins.