Watchdog: EPA data on sewer plant pollution is inaccurate

April 9, 2019

Lincoln Journal-Star :

The Environmental Protection Agency's inspector general says data released to the public about municipal sewer discharges is not accurate.

The agency watchdog sent a letter to the head of the EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention on Monday, warning that some information about hazardous substances released from publicly owned sewer systems is missing from a public database.

The watchdog says there were "discrepancies" between the total pounds of releases in the Toxics Release Inventory and internal data the EPA provided to the inspector general for the reporting years 2014-2017.