The article in the url below is one in a series of in-depth reports by the NYT into the state of water quality throughout the U.S. In particular, this article looks at reporting requirements for companies and the extent to which they comply, as well as pollution levels, state-by-state. The article also focuses on the actions (or inactions) taken by state regulators in response to abuses where they are identified. The article is long and too detailed to summarize here. Needless to say, however, it does not make for uplifting reading. I’ll spare you the gory anecdotes (of which, there are many) to focus on the numbers:
“Records analyzed by The Times indicate that the Clean Water Act has been violated more than 506,000 times since 2004, by more than 23,000 companies and other facilities, according to reports submitted by polluters themselves. … [However] fewer than 3 percent of Clean Water Act violations resulted in fines or other significant punishments by state officials.”
The overall tone and underlying message of the article can be summarized as follows: Polluter firms get away with what they can and the few regulators who try to act decisively to enforce the law are thwarted (and eventually fired if they persist) by well-financed lobbyists and the politicians they support.
The detailed data obtained by the NYT through Freedom of Information Act requests, along with the complete set of articles in the series, are posted on the newspaper’s website:
http://projects.nytimes.com/toxic-waters
Take care
David
Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther/
Clean Water Laws Neglected, at a Cost
By CHARLES DUHIGG; Karl Russell contributed reporting.
5394 words
13 September 2009
The New York Times
Late Edition - Final
1
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/us/13water.html
