Water & Environmental Justice
289,767 EPA-regulated facilities tracked across 3,120 counties
Published April 14, 2026
Key Findings
- 289,767 EPA-regulated facilities tracked across 3,120 counties
- 2,071,981 total violations documented, including 309,716 health-based violations
- $2.8B in total EPA penalties assessed
- 3,094 facilities classified as serious violators by the EPA
- Communities of color face 2.2x the penalty disparity ratio compared to predominantly white communities
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, not race, is the defensible predictor of drinking-water health violations. A county-level model restricted to public water systems (N=2,993 counties, state fixed effects, rural control) finds a higher health-violation rate per water system in lower-income counties (β=0.0146, p=0.032). The estimate is exploratory — no pre-registered analysis plan — and was re-estimated on 2026-06-22 after an independent peer review.
- Higher-POC communities show a descriptive 2.2x penalty ratio, which likely reflects larger industrial facilities in those areas. Once income is controlled, race does not predict health violations (null, p=0.26). The enforcement-gap model is null for both race and income.
- Correction (2026-06-22). An earlier version of this page reported that high-POC communities had fewer detected health violations (0.63x) and presented this as evidence against the under-enforcement hypothesis. That result was an artifact of attaching water-system violations to geocoded industrial facilities, which cannot incur them; it has been retracted. Restricted to water systems, the descriptive gradient runs the other way (1.38x, Q1→Q5), with the magnitude indicative only.
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.
Downloads
- Top 50 violators (CSV)
- Enforcement gaps by state (CSV)
- Demographic disparity analysis (CSV)
- Polluter political donations (CSV)
For newsrooms: contact editor@thepublicledgers.org for the full dataset.
Explore EPA Facility Data
Top violating facilities by state — violation counts, penalties, and enforcement gaps.