Enforcement Conference: Water Pollution Action And Awareness

Water pollution is a pressing issue that necessitates strict enforcement and compliance to safeguard human health and the environment. The US EPA, through initiatives like the National Enforcement and Compliance Initiative (NECI), aims to enhance drinking water standards in community water systems. The Missouri Department of Natural Resources enforces the Missouri Clean Water Law and provides compliance assistance to prevent water pollution. The AMWA 2025 Water Policy Conference offers a platform for stakeholders to engage with policymakers and industry leaders, addressing critical water issues and legislative priorities. These efforts reflect a broader commitment to ensuring safe and sustainable water systems through regulatory compliance and collaborative action.

Compliance monitoring and enforcement

The EPA's compliance monitoring and enforcement activities cover a wide range of areas to prevent water pollution. These include:

• Pretreatment: The EPA enforces requirements for industries to pre-treat pollutants in their wastes before discharging them into local sanitary sewers and wastewater treatment plants. This helps protect these systems from interference by pollutants such as metals, oil, grease, and other substances.
• Stormwater pollution: The EPA ensures that industrial facilities, construction sites, and municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s) have measures in place to prevent stormwater pollution. This involves controlling the discharge of debris, chemicals, sediment, and other pollutants into nearby waterways.
• Spills: The EPA works to prevent and respond to oil and hazardous substance spills, which can have detrimental effects on aquatic ecosystems and human health. The CWA prohibits such spills and mandates actions to prevent future occurrences.
• Wetlands protection: The EPA investigates and enforces regulations on the discharge of dredged or fill material into wetlands and other waters. This includes permitting processes and compliance monitoring to prevent unauthorised alterations to wetland ecosystems.
• National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES): Under the CWA, the EPA regulates discharges of pollutants from various sources, including municipal and industrial wastewater treatment plants, sewer collection systems, and stormwater discharges from industrial facilities.

To carry out compliance monitoring and enforcement effectively, the EPA employs various strategies:

• On-site inspections: The EPA conducts on-site visits by qualified inspectors to assess compliance with environmental laws and regulations.
• Information review: The agency also reviews information submitted by regulated entities, such as monitoring reports and permit applications, to ensure they meet the required standards.
• Collaboration with partners: The EPA works closely with federal, state, and tribal regulatory partners to implement compliance monitoring programs and foster collaboration between states, tribes, and territories.
• Training and technical assistance: The EPA provides training for inspectors and offers technical assistance to community water systems to help them achieve and maintain compliance with environmental standards.
• Enforcement actions: When violations occur, the EPA, along with relevant state or tribal departments, can take formal enforcement actions, including litigation, to compel compliance with water pollution regulations.

Community water systems

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) defines a CWS as a public water system with at least 15 service connections that serve year-round residents or that regularly serves at least 25 year-round residents. CWSs include residential areas such as cities, housing communities, and mobile home parks.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been working to improve drinking water quality at CWSs. In the fiscal years 2020-2023, the EPA made significant progress towards meeting drinking water goals through inspections, enforcement, and technical assistance. The EPA provided training events and web-based inspector training for EPA, state, and tribal inspectors. The EPA also launched the Compliance Advisors for Sustainable Water Systems program to provide on-the-ground technical assistance to community water systems to achieve and maintain environmental compliance.

Despite these efforts, in the fiscal year 2022, 43.2% of the nation's CWSs violated at least one drinking water standard, 29.6% had monitoring and reporting violations, and 7% had health-based standard violations. To address this, the EPA has increased the number of community water system inspections, focusing on cybersecurity as cyberattacks on these systems are increasing in frequency and severity.

Clean Water Act (CWA)

The Clean Water Act (CWA) is the primary federal statute regulating the protection of the nation's water. The CWA aims to prevent, reduce, and eliminate pollution in the nation's water to "restore and maintain the chemical, physical, and biological integrity of the nation's waters", as outlined in CWA section 101(a). The CWA's stated goal is to eliminate the discharge of pollutants into navigable waters, as defined in CWA § 502(7) and relevant case law.

The CWA establishes the framework for regulating the discharge of pollutants into US waters and sets quality standards for surface waters. It makes it unlawful for any person to discharge pollutants from a point source into US waters without a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit. The EPA's NPDES permit program controls these discharges, and the EPA issues technology-based effluent guidelines that set discharge standards based on available and economically feasible treatment technologies. The EPA also funds the construction of sewage treatment plants and addresses critical issues caused by nonpoint source pollution.

The CWA does not address groundwater contamination, which is covered by other laws such as the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. However, the CWA does regulate discharges into publicly owned treatment works and sets sludge requirements for domestic treatment works. It also requires § 404 dredge and fill permits for construction projects to prevent the discharge of dredged or fill material into wetlands and other US waters without authorisation.

The CWA applies to federal facilities and their contractors, who must comply with Federal and State requirements for controlling and abating water pollution. While penalties are not imposed on federal facilities, the EPA can enforce against them for violations. Private contractors working at federal facilities, however, may be subject to CWA enforcement tools if they discharge pollutants or violate permit terms.

Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA)

The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) is the primary federal law in the United States intended to ensure safe drinking water for the public. The SDWA was originally passed by Congress in 1974 to protect public health by regulating the nation's public drinking water supply. The Act authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish minimum standards to protect the quality of drinking water, using detailed risk and cost assessments, and requires all public water systems to comply, including protection from underground injection. The SDWA does not cover private wells or bottled water, which is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act.

The SDWA includes a whistleblower protection provision, which allows employees who believe they were fired or suffered another adverse action related to the enforcement of this law to file a written complaint within 30 days. The SDWA also provides for the establishment of National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (NPDWRs) for contaminants that may cause adverse public health effects. Small water systems are given special consideration and resources under the SDWA to ensure they have the managerial, financial, and technical ability to comply with drinking water standards.

In 1986, the SDWA was amended to require the EPA to apply future NPDWRs to both community and non-transient non-community water systems when evaluating and revising current regulations. These amendments also included more enforcement powers and required the regulation of additional contaminants. In 1996, Congress again amended the SDWA to emphasize sound science and risk-based standard setting, small water supply system flexibility and technical assistance, and community empowerment. The 1996 amendments also require that the EPA consider a detailed risk and cost assessment, and the best available peer-reviewed science, when developing standards.

The EPA has made significant progress toward meeting drinking water goals through inspections, enforcement, and technical assistance, and by increasing the capacity of EPA and State inspectors to monitor compliance. For example, the EPA issued Safe Drinking Water Act orders to 185 public water systems during FY 2023 and provided multiple training events to support EPA, state, tribal, and territorial drinking water programs. The EPA has also established protective drinking water standards for more than 90 contaminants, and over 92% of the population supplied by community water systems receives drinking water that meets all health-based standards.

Water pollution control issues

Water pollution control is a complex issue that requires the collaboration of various government agencies, such as the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the implementation of comprehensive legislation, such as the Clean Water Act (CWA). The CWA, enacted in 1948 as the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and significantly reorganised and expanded in 1972, is the primary federal statute regulating the protection of the nation's water. It aims to prevent, reduce, and eliminate water pollution by establishing a basic structure for regulating pollutant discharges into US waters and setting wastewater standards for industries.

One of the key challenges in water pollution control is ensuring that industries pre-treat pollutants in their wastes. The EPA enforces requirements for industries to pre-treat their wastes to protect local sanitary sewers and wastewater treatment plants. Industrial discharges of metals, oil, grease, and other pollutants can interfere with the operation of these facilities, leading to the discharge of untreated or inadequately treated pollutants into local waterways. The CWA's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit program plays a crucial role in controlling these discharges.

Another issue is stormwater pollution, which occurs when debris, chemicals, sediment, or other pollutants from industrial, construction, or urban areas are washed into water bodies, either directly or via storm drains. Uncontrolled stormwater discharges can pose significant threats to public health and the environment. To address this, the CWA requires industrial facilities, construction sites, and municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4s) to implement measures to prevent stormwater pollution.

Spills of oil and hazardous substances are also a serious concern. Oil spills can harm animal and plant life, contaminate food sources, and persist in the environment for years. The CWA prohibits spills of oil and hazardous substances in quantities that may be harmful to human health and the environment and mandates actions to prevent future occurrences.

Additionally, the EPA ensures that dredged or fill material is not discharged into wetlands and other US waters without a permit from the United States Army Corps of Engineers. The EPA investigates and inspects unauthorised discharges and pursues enforcement actions to ensure compliance with the CWA and the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).

Despite these efforts, water pollution remains a prevalent issue. In fiscal year (FY) 2022, 43.2% of community water systems (CWSs) in the US violated at least one drinking water standard, while 29.6% had monitoring and reporting violations, and 7% had health-based standard violations. To address this, the EPA has initiated the National Enforcement and Compliance Initiative (NECI), aiming to improve drinking water quality through inspections, enforcement, and technical assistance, and increase collaboration with states, tribes, and territories.

Frequently asked questions