U.S. EPA Clean Water Act enforcement continues slide

According to data from U.S. EPA, criminal enforcement under the Clean Water Act has continued to drop under the Obama Administration. This trend began under George W. Bush, but the continued slide goes against pledges by the Obama Administration.

As reported in yesterday's New York Times article, both Clean Water Act convictions and the number of criminal cases brought under the Act dropped this year.

This isn't anything new -- as the article says: "Both figures have dropped nearly 60 percent since the late 1990s, their highest points in the past 20 years." The article goes on to discuss possible reasons for this trend -- from staffing and budget cuts in the early 2000s to a focus on "higher-quality" cases which require more resources.

Have you noticed this drop in U.S. EPA criminal enforcement in your watershed? I have to admit that from a very anecdotal place I've felt like I've seen a flurry of U.S. EPA enforcement activity lately but will have to revisit that impression given the data described here.

The data was originally requested and reported on by Greenwire.