Image by Flickr user Mr. J Doe Image by 20090915-drain.jpg

The New York Times recently published a great bit of investigative reporting about how ineffective the Clean Water Act has proven.

Read more stories on this subject in our water topic page.They document many glaring national examples; read about them over here.

But on a more interesting local level, they've made a ton of data available, and it shows that at 61% of applicable South Carolina facilities a violation of the water act was found -- that's one of the highest rates in the nation.

Also staggering was that only 15% of those violations had enforcement action taken, but staggering once again was how that weak enforcement rate was one of the county's better.

But, hop on over and take a look at the map of violations for yourself. -- You can also see a map of the individual violations, to which the Charleston metro area is no stranger.