Facilities across America continue to dump more pollution into our waterways than their Clean Water Act permits allow, according to Troubled Waters: An analysis of Clean Water Act compliance, a report released by U.S. PIRG (now Environmental America) this Fall.

Using the most recent data provided by U.S. EPA, U.S. PIRG found that 57% of major industrial and municipal facilities exceeded their Clean Water Act permit limits at least once in 2005. The average facility exceeded its pollution permit limit by 263 percent, discharging close to four times the legal limit.

U.S. PIRG researches also found that the 3600 major facilities exceeding their permit limits, reported more than 24,400 exceedances of their Clean Water Act permits in 2005. This means that many facilities exceeded their permits more than once and for more than one pollutant. Nationally, 628 major facilities exceeded their Clean Water Act permits for at least half of the monthly reporting periods in 2005; and 85 facilities exceeded their Clean Water Act permits during every reporting period.

Unfortunately these findings are just the tip of the polluted iceberg since the data analyzed includes only “major” facilities and does not include pollution discharged into waters by the thousands of minor facilities across the country.