The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is breaking our hearts. Time and time again, the agency has blown off deadlines for pollution cleanup, not by days, weeks or months -but by decades.

A scathing story in yesterday's Washington Post vilifies EPA as the ultimate scofflaw for its record of delays and lax enforcement.

The article notes a report by the General Accountability Office in 2005, which found that EPA had met only 37 of 338 Clean Air Act deadlines. The agency's record on water is just as bad.

Consider that EPA blew off its 1979 deadline under the Clean Water Act for states to submit their "pollution budgets" (TMDLs), showing how much cleanup of unhealthy rivers was needed. In a pattern repeated over and over, it took 19 years and several lawsuits from environmental groups before that happened - yet no locality was penalized for missing the original deadline.

The WashPost noted two local cases that typify EPA's lack of resolve regarding deadlines:

• Blue Plains Sewage Plant - The largest single source of nitrogen pollution in the Chesapeake Bay watershed. The EPA wants to drastically cut its nitrogen output. Deadline not yet set.
• Anacostia River - Reduce raw sewage flowing from the District's sewer system into the river. Deadline not yet set.

Consider that environmentalists won a lawsuit last month forcing the EPA to impose stricter, daily caps on river pollution. But the agency says it may need a year before taking action.

Environmentalists justifiably have criticized the agency and their state counterparts for sending a mixed message, one that says pollution is wrong but noncompliance is okay.

That charge is certainly supported by a PIRG report, "Troubled Waters," which found that 62% of all major industrial and municipal facilities discharged more pollution into U.S. waterways than their permits allowed during an 18-month period. On average, those illegal discharges exceeded EPA permit limits by more than 275% -- or almost four times the legal limit. Neither EPA nor the states are making polluters follow the rules. It's no wonder, says the Washington Post, that a federal judge assailed EPA for its "unblemished record of nonperformance" - that's an understatement.

Making matters worse are EPA's perpetual budget cuts by the Bush administration, which have undermined environmental enforcement for several years. Congress has stepped in to restore that funding but that's tantamount to plugging leaks in a crumbling foundation. Enforcing existing laws and ensuring permit compliance should be a no-brainer, not an annual fight.

Something certainly smells at EPA, and it's not just the sewage floating by in our rivers.