Abstract   This paper investigates the effect of governance on levels of water pollution for all industrial activities as well as by some specific industry category in a sample of OECD economies. Using an institutional ecological economic conceptual framework, the effects of several measures of governance are empirically examined. Our findings reveal that the rule of law, regulatory quality, control of corruption, government effectiveness and voice and accountability are negatively and statistically significantly correlated with water pollution across all industrial activities as well as specific industry groups. We conclude that governance matters for mitigating industrial water pollution. This novel paper adds to the existing literature on industrial water pollution by developing a modeling approach that empirically examines questions that have so far not been explored in institutional ecological economics and demonstrates the importance of the framework for addressing real life ecological problems that are common across the world. Policy implications are drawn.