Nonprofits are using the state’s new stormwater requirements to sue plastic manufacturers for polluting waterways — and they’re winning
Citizen enforcement has always been an important part of the US Clean Water Act, which aims to prevent dangerous water pollution through regulation. Without the help of watchdog groups looking out for pollution in the country’s rivers and ports, state water boards would struggle to keep tabs on the tens of thousands of industrial manufacturing facilities in the US.
In the last few months, a nonprofit group called the Plastic Pollution Coalition (PPC) has teamed up with environmental law firm Greenfire to go after some of the 3,000 plastic manufacturers in California that it says are violating stormwater permitting requirements, and therefore the Clean Water Act. A startling number of these facilities have not registered for permits at all - a violation of the law - and others are allowing pre-production microbeads and plastic byproducts to end up in rivers or the ocean, according to the group.
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