Garland was one of a handful of cities across the Metroplex that went
over its water permit limit in 2005, according to a new report on water
quality violations marking the 35th anniversary of the federal Clean
Water Act, which was introduced to protect streams and rivers in North
Texas from pollution.
Compliance
records attained from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by
the Environmental Texas and Policy Center, an Austin-based advocacy
group show how often a treatment plant exceeded its permit limits.
The
report listed at least one violation each month by the North Texas
Municipal Water District, which serves areas east and northeast,
encompassing more than 60 cities including Mesquite and Rowlett. The
reported listed Seagoville and The Colony as violators as well.
Rowlett
was a leader in water conservation during the recent drought,
implementing user fees and offering education to reduce water usage.
Because the city attained its goals of water conservation, Rowlett was
among the first cities to ease restrictions just prior to the North
Texas Municipal Water District making the announcement that the drought
was over in the summer of 2007.
Permits were implemented to
limit the amount of organic material, nutrients and chemicals in
wastewater, as well as how much water can flow through a wastewater
plant. The goals of the 1972 Clean Water Act were to eliminate the
discharge of pollutants into waterways and make U.S. waterways
swimmable and fishable.
On a grander scale, Texas as a state had
318 facilities. Texas led all other states in exceedences of their
Clean Water Act permits, racking up 1,340 exceedances. On average,
facilities exceeding their permits did so by 143 percent, nearly 2-½
times the legal limit. Polluters in Texas reported 64 instances in
which they exceeded their Clean Water Act permit by at least 500
percent over the legal limit. Environment Texas obtained the data using
the Freedom of Information Act. The report compiled facilities
compliance with the Clean Water Act between Jan. 1, 2005, through Dec.
31, 2005.
“Facilities in Texas and across the country continue to dump more
pollution into our waterways than is allowed by law,” said Environment
Texas Citizen Outreach Director Brad Hicks.
Texas
still ranked comparatively low compared to others, according to the
report. Statewide, just over half of the 596 big facilities in Texas
reported exceeding their permit limits at least once in 2005. The worst
state was Maine, where 82 percent are violators. South Dakota was the
best rated state with 30 percent.
Harris County, here in Texas, led all U.S. counties in the number of major facilities reporting violations with 96.
Contact Chris McGathey at cmcgathey@acnpapers.com or comment on this story at www.scntx.com.
