EPA Press Office WASHINGTON – Today, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) announced the FY 2022 Annual Environmental Enforcement Results report, highlighting increased inspections in the aftermath of the pandemic, reductions in significant noncompliance under the Clean Water Act, and aggressive actions to target the most serious water, air, land, and chemical violations that impact communities across the countryTaken together, OECA’s criminal, civil, and administrative enforcement cases reduced, treated or eliminated pollutants by 95 million pounds and required violators to pay over $300 million in penalties, fines and restitution. In keeping with EPA’s Strategic Plan, OECA focused on working to mitigate the effects of climate change and advance environmental justice in the enforcement program.“In FY 2022, EPA’s enforcement and compliance program used a…
I. Using Molecular Methods to Study Cyanobacterial Blooms. This presentation introduces molecular monitoring approaches used in the detection and quantification of cyanobacterial groups and cyanotoxin genes implicated in harmful algal blooms. Results will be presented from next generation sequence analysis and qPCR/RT-qPCR methods to characterize cyanobacterial community structure, associated bacterial community, toxic cyanobacteria, and geographically localized genotypes or species. The methods study cyanobacterial functional genes associated with nutrients in toxin production, their relationship to water quality parameters, and explore drivers of cyanotoxin production using mRNA-based sequence analysis. This presentation also discusses occurrence, distribution, temporal-spatial variations of cyanobacteria, especially toxin-producers, and use as early warning systems for cyanotoxin production. II. Funding Integration Tool for Source Water: Finding a Plan a FITS. With different funding mechanisms available, it can be difficult finding…
By Amanda Brandeis; Scripps National Correspondent SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Voted into law a half-century ago, the Clean Water Act of 1972 is still far from achieving its ambitious goals. The landmark law aimed to make U.S. waters safe for swimming and fishing by 1983. It also promised to eliminate all discharges of pollutants into navigable waters by 1985. "There were really outrageous incidents of pollution that really brought the issue of water pollution to the public’s attention," said Tom Pelton, director of communications for the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). In 1969, the Cuyahoga River in Cleveland was so polluted that it caught fire. Nearly always covered in oil slicks, industrial runoff polluted the water for decades. "And it happened before in the '50s and the '40s. So much oil…
