EPA Sues 4 Cities for Failing to Enforce Water Quality Rules

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department and the Environmental Protection Agency filed lawsuits Wednesday against four U.S. cities for failure to enforce water quality standards requiring industries to treat toxic waste water before releasing it into municipal systems.

Acting on the EPA’s behalf, Justice Department attorneys initiated action against the cities of Detroit, El Paso, Phoenix and San Antonio, seeking court orders to force them to meet federal requirements. Continued failure to comply could bring fines of $25,000 a day.

In addition, the EPA disclosed that 57 other cities and towns have been the subject of judicial and administrative sanctions for failure to enforce the ban against discharge of untreated toxic wastes into their sewage systems. Among them is California’s Chino Basin area, which was assessed a $200,000 fine by the state last summer.

“We can, we must, we will do a better job of enforcing our environmental laws,” EPA Administrator William K. Reilly said at a news conference as he and Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh announced the actions against the four cities.

Reilly characterized the four as “the weak link in the effort to remove toxic pollutants from the nation’s waterways.”

Altogether, EPA estimated that a third of the country’s nearly 1,500 municipal sewage treatment facilities at which pre-treatment programs are required remain in violation of at least some of the requirements.

The effluent from thousands of industrial sites contains many toxics, including chemicals such as cyanide and arsenic and heavy metals such as lead and cadmium. Without pre-treatment, such discharges have the potential to corrode the pipes of municipal waste treatment systems, endanger workers and even cause explosions.

Besides California, non-compliance actions have been initiated by the states of Michigan, Ohio, North Carolina and Tennessee.