Water & Environmental Justice

The EPA regulates 289,767 facilities across 3,120 counties under the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and related statutes. This investigation cross-references EPA enforcement data (ECHO), demographic data (Census ACS), and political spending records to map the overlap between environmental enforcement gaps, demographic vulnerability, and political influence.

Enforcement Gaps

EPA penalty and enforcement data reveals systematic variation in how environmental violations are addressed. Total penalties assessed: $2.8B. The analysis identifies counties where enforcement intensity (penalties per violation) falls below the national median despite above-average violation rates.

Demographic Disparities

Census demographic data overlaid on EPA facility and violation records documents environmental justice disparities:

Income is the dominant predictor of environmental health violations. County-level regression (N=2,963, state fixed effects) shows low-income communities have significantly more detected health violations per facility (β=0.031, p<0.001). This finding is stable across five robustness specifications.
Higher-POC communities show a descriptive 2.2x penalty ratio, but this likely reflects larger industrial facilities in those areas. When controlling for income, POC predicts fewer detected health violations and higher penalties — the opposite of the under-enforcement hypothesis. The enforcement-gap model is null for both race and income.

Polluter Political Spending

Cross-referencing major violators against FEC campaign finance records and Senate lobbying disclosures maps the political spending of companies with the worst environmental records.

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