Cases of significant noncompliance are the more severe and chronic violations of the discharge limits or monitoring requirements established in a facility’s discharge permit. Significant noncompliance is defined (1) for toxic pollutants as exceeding an average monthly limit by 20 percent or more in any 2 months of a 6-month period and (2) for conventional pollutants as exceeding an average monthly limit by 40 percent in any 2 months of a 6-month period. Appendix II contains additional data from EPA’s Permit Compliance System on the frequency with which major facilities violated their discharge permits. These analyses were based on the same information sources that the agency regularly uses to identify cases of significant noncompliance. EPA’s Criterion for Screening Excludes Many Cases of Significant Noncompliance

EPA’s Permit Compliance System understates significant noncompliance because its criterion for screening cases has not remained consistent with the types of discharge limits used in permits. Enforcement Is Limited, and Penalties Can Vary

EPA assigns priorities for enforcement action to facilities whose violations have met its criterion for significant noncompliance, and it bases its penalties, in part, on the types of limits that the facilities have violated. Enforcement

EPA’s regions and the states concentrate their enforcement resources on facilities that the Permit Compliance System has identified as being in significant noncompliance. During fiscal year 1994, EPA assessed penalties of about $25 million in 323 cases of Clean Water Act violations. EPA’s 1992 and 1994 studies indicate that very few penalties were assessed for significant violations of daily maximum limits.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) progress in ensuring that facilities comply with federal pollutant discharge requirements, focusing on: (1) the frequency of facilities' violations; (2) the limitations of EPA systems and the effects of these limitations; and (3) EPA plans to correct these facilities.

What GAO Found

GAO found that EPA: (1) compliance data for FY 1994 show that 1 in 6 of the nation's 7,053 major regulated facilities have significantly violated the discharge limits in their permits; (2) considers facilities to be in significant noncompliance of their discharge levels when discharged pollutants exceed permit limits by 20 percent or more in a 2- to 6-month period; (3) is unable to identify all of the facilities that violate their discharge limits because the criteria it uses to screen facilities have not remained consistent with the types of discharge limits used in permits; (4) has expanded its criteria for identifying cases of significant noncompliance and assigning priorities of enforcement action in order to identify major facilities that have violated discharge levels in the past; and (5) assessed penalties of about $25 million in 323 cases of Clean Water Act violations in 1994, and its studies indicate that very few penalties are assessed for significant violations of daily maximum discharge limits.