Clean Water Laws Are Neglected, at a Cost in Suffering. But state regulators never fined or punished those companies for breaking those pollution laws. This pattern is not limited to West Virginia. Almost four decades ago, Congress passed the Clean Water Act to force polluters to disclose the toxins they dump into waterways and to give regulators the power to fine or jail offenders. States have passed pollution statutes of their own. When I first learned to clean my own place, I thought Saturday had to be an all day cleanathon. Just spent an hour on the phone with Microsoft trying to validate my Windows7 upgrade key on a clean install on my MacBookPro. Back in the day, theyd help. World Food Day is a day of action dedicated to tackling global hunger. Held annually on 16th October, people from around the world come together to declare their. This is why I dont have kids. Do you know they expect you to feed kids EVERY DAY They would probably get sick of cereal for breakfast, lunch. I live in the country and the water where I live is very rusty. If I go away for the weekend when I come home my toilet looks like it hasnt been cleaned for 40 years. Print coupons for your favorite Colgate oral care products. Find coupons for toothpastes, teeth whitening products, and much more. Download free software trials or find free updates for your Nero software from Nero 12 over Nero 11 to Nero Burning ROM, Nero BackItUp or past products. Each year the SAVE LIVES Clean Your Hands campaign aims to progress the goal of maintaining a global profile on the importance of hand hygiene in health care and to. But in recent years, violations of the Clean Water Act have risen steadily across the nation, an extensive review of water pollution records by The New York Times found. In the last five years alone, chemical factories, manufacturing plants and other workplaces have violated water pollution laws more than half a million times. Fried Chicken Breading Recipe. The violations range from failing to report emissions to dumping toxins at concentrations regulators say might contribute to cancer, birth defects and other illnesses. However, the vast majority of those polluters have escaped punishment. State officials have repeatedly ignored obvious illegal dumping, and the Environmental Protection Agency, which can prosecute polluters when states fail to act, has often declined to intervene. Because it is difficult to determine what causes diseases like cancer, it is impossible to know how many illnesses are the result of water pollution, or contaminants role in the health problems of specific individuals. But concerns over these toxins are great enough that Congress and the E. P. A. regulate more than 1. Clean Water Act and strictly limit 9. Safe Drinking Water Act. Regulators themselves acknowledge lapses. The new E. P. A. administrator, Lisa P. Jackson, said in an interview that despite many successes since the Clean Water Act was passed in 1. She added that strengthening water protections is among her top priorities. State regulators say they are doing their best with insufficient resources. The Times obtained hundreds of thousands of water pollution records through Freedom of Information Act requests to every state and the E. P. A., and compiled a national database of water pollution violations that is more comprehensive than those maintained by states or the E. P. A. For an interactive version, which can show violations in any community, visit www. In addition, The Times interviewed more than 2. That research shows that an estimated one in 1. Americans have been exposed to drinking water that contains dangerous chemicals or fails to meet a federal health benchmark in other ways. Those exposures include carcinogens in the tap water of major American cities and unsafe chemicals in drinking water wells. Wells, which are not typically regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act, are more likely to contain contaminants than municipal water systems. Because most of todays water pollution has no scent or taste, many people who consume dangerous chemicals do not realize it, even after they become sick, researchers say. Day Clean' title='1 Day Clean' />But an estimated 1. Americans fall ill each year from drinking water contaminated with parasites, bacteria or viruses, according to a study published last year in the scientific journal Reviews of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology. That figure does not include illnesses caused by other chemicals and toxins. In the nations largest dairy states, like Wisconsin and California, farmers have sprayed liquefied animal feces onto fields, where it has seeped into wells, causing severe infections. Tap water in parts of the Farm Belt, including cities in Illinois, Kansas, Missouri and Indiana, has contained pesticides at concentrations that some scientists have linked to birth defects and fertility problems. In parts of New York, Rhode Island, Ohio, California and other states where sewer systems cannot accommodate heavy rains, untreated human waste has flowed into rivers and washed onto beaches. Drinking water in parts of New Jersey, New York, Arizona and Massachusetts shows some of the highest concentrations of tetrachloroethylene, a dry cleaning solvent that has been linked to kidney damage and cancer. Specific types of water pollution across the United States will be examined in future Times articles. Photo. Jennifer Hall Massey relies on drinking water that is brought in by truck and stored in barrels on her porch near Charleston, W. Va. Credit. Damon WinterThe New York Times The Timess research also shows that last year, 4. Safe Drinking Water Act at least once, according to an analysis of E. P. A. data. Those violations ranged from failing to maintain proper paperwork to allowing carcinogens into tap water. More than 2. 3 million people received drinking water from municipal systems that violated a health based standard. In some cases, people got sick right away. In other situations, pollutants like chemicals, inorganic toxins and heavy metals can accumulate in the body for years or decades before they cause problems. Some of the most frequently detected contaminants have been linked to cancer, birth defects and neurological disorders. Records analyzed by The Times indicate that the Clean Water Act has been violated more than 5. Companies sometimes test what they are dumping only once a quarter, so the actual number of days when they broke the law is often far higher. And some companies illegally avoid reporting their emissions, say officials, so infractions go unrecorded. Environmental groups say the number of Clean Water Act violations has increased significantly in the last decade. Comprehensive data go back only five years but show that the number of facilities violating the Clean Water Act grew more than 1. Day Clean' title='1 Day Clean' />Polluters include small companies, like gas stations, dry cleaners, shopping malls and the Friendly Acres Mobile Home Park in Laporte, Ind., which acknowledged to regulators that it had dumped human waste into a nearby river for three years. They also include large operations, like chemical factories, power plants, sewage treatment centers and one of the biggest zinc smelters, the Horsehead Corporation of Pennsylvania, which has dumped illegal concentrations of copper, lead, zinc, chlorine and selenium into the Ohio River. Those chemicals can contribute to mental retardation and cancer. Some violations are relatively minor. But about 6. 0 percent of the polluters were deemed in significant noncompliance meaning their violations were the most serious kind, like dumping cancer causing chemicals or failing to measure or report when they pollute. Finally, the Timess research shows that fewer than 3 percent of Clean Water Act violations resulted in fines or other significant punishments by state officials. And the E. P. A. has often declined to prosecute polluters or force states to strengthen their enforcement by threatening to withhold federal money or take away powers the agency has delegated to state officials. Neither Friendly Acres Mobile Home Park nor Horsehead, for instance, was fined for Clean Water Act violations in the last eight years. A representative of Friendly Acres declined to comment. Indiana officials say they are investigating the mobile home park. A representative of Horsehead said the company had taken steps to control pollution and was negotiating with regulators to clean up its emissions. Numerous state and federal lawmakers said they were unaware that pollution was so widespread. I dont think anyone realized how bad things have become, said Representative James L. Oberstar, a Minnesota Democrat, when told of The Timess findings. Mr. Oberstar is chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which has jurisdiction over many water quality issues. The E. P. A. and states have completely dropped the ball, he said. Without oversight and enforcement, companies will use our lakes and rivers as dumping grounds and thats exactly what is apparently going on. The E. P. A. administrator, Ms.