NPR "Poisoned Places" Report Finds 16 PA Facilities On EPA Watch List

This morning, NPR and the Center For Public Integrity launched an investigative series examining the effectiveness of the federal Clean Air Act, and levels of pollution in communities across the county.
The first report in the Poisoned Places series centers on a “watch list” the Environmental Protection Agency maintains to track  polluters.

Pollution violations at more than 1,600 plants across the country were serious enough that the government believes they require urgent action, according to an analysis of EPA data by NPR and the Center for Public Integrity. Yet nearly 300 of those facilities have been considered “high priority violators” of the Clean Air Act by the Environmental Protection Agency for at least a decade.
About a quarter of those 1,600 violators are on an internal EPA “watch list,” which the agency has kept secret until now.
EPA estimates facilities across the country emit 40 percent less toxic emissions in 2005 than they did in 1990, but toxic air pollution has persisted in communities like Ponca City, Okla., Hayden, Ariz., Tonawanda, N.Y., and Muscatine, Iowa.

The “watch list” includes sixteen Pennsylvania locations, including two state prisons, and a state-owned hospital. Sort through a spreadsheet of all the “watch list” locations here – scroll about halfway down the page to find the spreadsheet link. Click on the image of the map to view an interactive graphic of Pennsylvania’s polluters.Want more information about the data behind the map? Find it here. Finally, click here to read CPI’s accompanying story.
We’ll link to NPR’s “Poisoned Places” reports throughout the week.

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