Following the publication of a story by the Center for Public Integrity’s iWatch News and NPR on the confidential Clean Air Act “watch list,” the EPA published the internal report on its website. Those listed are suspected serious or chronic air pollution law violators that have escaped EPA punishment to date. The EPA keeps tabs on 1,600 suspected “high priority violators” of the Clean Air Act, but until iWatch News and NPR filed a Freedom of Information request the information was only circulated internally.

 

The agency also began to publish names on its watch lists for suspected violators of the Clean Water Act and other federal environmental statutes.

 

The EPA has not revealed, however, any details that explain what each alleged polluter did to get on the lists. It simply lists the facility name and address. The agency also includes a long disclaimer that being on the list doesn’t mean a facility necessarily violated the law, “only that an evaluation or investigation by EPA or a state or local environmental agency has led those organizations to allege that an unproven violation has in fact occurred.”

 

IMPACT: EPA Posts Secret 'Watch List' That Includes Chronic Polluters (by Corbin Hiar, iWatch News)

EPA Facility Watch List (U.S. Environmental Protection Agency)

Poisoned Places (iWatch News and NPR)