On Thursday, Oct. 15, EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson announced at a House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee hearing that the agency is stepping up its efforts on Clean Water Act enforcement. In the meeting, Jackson pointed to her Clean Water Action Enforcement Plan as a first step in revamping the compliance and enforcement program.

The goals of the plan are to target enforcement to the most significant pollution problems, give the public access to better data on the water quality in their communities, and strengthen enforcement performance at the state and federal levels. Elements of the plan, in the agency's words, include the following:

• Develop more comprehensive approaches to ensure enforcement is targeted to the most serious violations and the most significant sources of pollution.
• Work with states to ensure greater consistency throughout the country with respect to compliance and water quality. Ensure that states are issuing protective permits and taking enforcement to achieve compliance and remove economic incentives to violate the law.
• Use 21st century information technology to collect, analyze and use information in new, more efficient ways and to make that information readily accessible to the public. Better tools will help federal and state regulators identify serious compliance problems quickly and take prompt actions to correct them.

Links

• More information on the plan: