EPA Releases 2012 Enforcement Results

EPA recently released its annual enforcement results, which show achievement of significant environmental and public health protections.  EPA cites a reduction of 2.2 billion pounds of air, water and land pollution, as well as 4.4 billion pounds of hazardous waste, and $252 million in civil and criminal penalties levied.  They also highlight enforcement efforts that have reduced smaller amounts of pollution but have had substantial health impacts in communities.  EPA’s provided the following summary statement about the accomplishments of drinking water enforcement initiatives:

Sustained and focused enforcement attention on serious violators of clean drinking water standards has resulted in improvements in compliance. The number of systems with serious violations has declined by more than 60 percent in the past three years as a result of combined federal and state enforcement work, protecting people’s health through safer drinking water.

Please see the Press Release: http://www.epa.gov/enforcement/data/eoy2012/index.html.