Breakthrough in Clean Water Act (CWA) Permit Compliance

EPA in partnership with US state authorities have announced 50% reduction in non-compliance helping EPA provide clean and safe water for all. In 2018, EPA and 47 US states agreed to reduce non-compliance among water facilities authorized by Clean Water Act (CWA) by 50%. 5 years since, the collaboration has proved to be effective and the SNC – National significant non-compliance (SNC) rate has been reduced by 55.6%. This will result in benefits to both human health and our environment.

There were about 46,000 CWA-authorized facilities and more than 20% of the authorized facilities had non-compliance violations with respect to:

• Water discharge permits
• Exceeding allowed pollutant discharge limits
• Non-compliance with permit requirements
• Untimely or no reporting on compliance data

Without adequate data and reporting, it was a herculean task for EPA to determine compliance and determine SNC rates for the facilities.

How did EPA solve this SNC issue?

• Partnered with the local state authorities and met individual states over 600 times to discuss and prioritize SNC reduction strategies & how to address those violating SNC.
• Partnered with Association of Clean Water Administrators (ACWA) who supported the states through effective leadership, advice and gathered input from states to
• Provided help through National Compliance Initiatives (NCIs).
• The 2015 CWA rule that required CWA facilities to report on water discharge and pollutant data to EPA and the states is the key factor that led to this collaboration reduce SNC violations.

In 2023, EPA and the states will continue to concentrate on guaranteeing that the progress achieved is not lost and on delivering the worst CWA violators across the country.