{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://barragan.house.gov/2024/12/13/rep-barragan-proposes-clean-water-justice-act-to-hold-polluters-accountable/", "Rep. Barrag\u00e1n Proposes Clean Water Justice Act to Hold Polluters Accountable", "2024-12-13", "2024", "2024-12", "Democrat", "House", "CA", "Nanette Diaz Barrag\u00e1n", "B001300", "barragan.house.gov", "barragan", "https://barragan.house.gov/news", "scraper", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE\n\n10 December 2024\n\nContact: Kevin G. McGuire, 202-538-2386 (mobile)\n\nKevin.McGuire@mail.house.gov\n\nWASHINGTON \u2013 Today, Congresswoman Nanette Barrag\u00e1n (CA-44) introduced the Clean Justice Water Act, a bill that would increase the Clean Water Act\u2019s minimum and maximum penalties for criminal violations where a polluter knowingly dumps illegal pollutants into a sewer system or publicly owned treatment works plant. The bill also indexes these criminal penalties to inflation going forward.\n\nThe Clean Water Act\u2019s criminal penalties have not been updated by Congress for over 35 years, which limits the ability of the federal government to hold the worst polluters accountable.\n\n\u201cFor too long, corporations caught polluting the water of communities in my district and around the country have faced fines that are a small fraction of their annual profits,\u201d said Rep. Barrag\u00e1n. \u201cIn order to have true accountability and deter this behavior, we need to increase the penalties. The Clean Justice Water Act will update the tools the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Environmental Protection Agency have to hold these polluters accountable and protect our communities from harmful pollution in their water.\u201d\n\nIn November, the DOJ charged Phillips 66 with Clean Water Act violations because of their illegal discharging of hundreds of thousands of gallons of industrial wastewater from its Carson oil refinery into the Los Angeles County sewer system, and a failure to report the violations to authorities. If convicted of all charges, Phillips 66 would face up to $2.4 million in fines. In 2023, Phillips 66 had an annual profit of $7 billion.\n\nThe Clean Water Justice Act would:\n\nIncrease the minimum and maximum fines for a person who knowingly dumps pollution into a sewer system in violation of the Clean Water Act from\n\nA minimum of $5,000 per day of violation to $25,000 per day\n\nA maximum of $50,000 per day of violation to $250,000 per day\n\nIncreases the maximum fine for a repeat violation from $100,000 per day of violation to $500,000 per day.\n\nIndexes the above updated penalties to inflation going forward, based on the same approach agencies use to update civil penalties.\n\nThe Clean Water Justice Act is cosponsored by Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib.\n\nIt is supported by Earthjustice and the National Wildlife Foundation.\n\nA copy of the bill can be found here.\n\n###\n\nCongressmember Nanette Barrag\u00e1n represents California\u2019s 44th District. She sits on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and serves as Chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus (CHC).", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-07T22:13:55Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://barragan.house.gov/2024/12/13/rep-barragan-proposes-clean-water-justice-act-to-hold-polluters-accountable/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.902128104120493, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}