ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES

I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823

A. Criminal Versus Civil Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 824

B. Criminal Enforcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 826

C. Interaction with Other Criminal Violations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827

II. GENERAL ISSUES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827

A. Overview of the Elements of an Environmental Criminal

Violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 827

B. Liability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 828

1. Individual Liability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 828

2. Corporate Liability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 830

C. Common Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 831

1. Constitutional and Procedural Defenses. . . . . . . . . . . . . 831

2. Other Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 837

D. Voluntary Compliance and Sentencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 837

E. Sentencing Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 840

III. CLEAN AIR ACT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 841

A. Purpose & Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 841

B. Violations of CAA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843

1. Substantive Violations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843

a. Implementation Plans for National Ambient Air

Quality Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 843

b. Other CAA Provisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 845

i. National Emission Standards for Hazardous

Air Pollutants (“NESHAP”) . . . . . . . . . . . . 846

ii. New Source Performance Standards

(“NSPS”) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 847

iii. Sulfur Dioxide Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 848

iv. Stratospheric Ozone Protection . . . . . . . . . 849

2. Statement and Filing-related Violations. . . . . . . . . . . . . 849

3. Endangerment Violations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 851

C. Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 851

IV. CLEAN WATER ACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853

A. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 853

B. Elements of a CWA Offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 854

1. Violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 854

a. Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 854

i. Person. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 854

ii. Pollutants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 854

iii. Point Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 855

821

iv. Navigable Waters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 856

vi. Discharge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 857

b. Criminal Provisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 857

i. National Pollutant Discharge Elimination

System (“NPDES”) Permit Program . . . . . . 858

ii. Monitoring, Reporting, and Regulatory

Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 859

iii. Discharge of Oil and Hazardous Substances 860

2. Intent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 862

a. Negligence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 862

b. Knowing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 862

c. Knowing Endangerment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 863

C. Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 863

D. Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 866

V. SAFE DRINKING WATER ACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867

A. Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 867

B. Elements of SDWA Offenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 868

1. Enforcement of Ban on Tampering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 868

2. Underground Injection of Contaminants . . . . . . . . . . . . 869

VI. COMPREHENSIVE ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSE, COMPENSATION, AND

LIABILITY ACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 870

A. Purpose & Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 870

B. CERCLA Offenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 872

C. Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 875

D. Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 877

VII. RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND RECOVERY ACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 878

A. Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 878

B. Elements of a RCRA Offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 879

1. Violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 879

2. Intent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 880

a. Knowing Violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 880

b. Knowing Endangerment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 883

C. Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 883

D. Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 885

VIII. TOXIC SUBSTANCES CONTROL ACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 886

A. Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 886

B. Elements of a TSCA Offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 886

1. Violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 886

2. Intent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 888

C. Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 889

D. Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 889

IX. THE FEDERAL INSECTICIDE, FUNGICIDE, AND RODENTICIDE ACT . . . . . . 890

822 AMERICAN CRIMINAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 58:821

A. Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 890

B. Elements of a FIFRA Offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 891

1. Violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 891

2. Intent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 893

C. Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 893

D. Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 894

I. INTRODUCTION

The criminal environmental enforcement regime is multi-faceted and complex.

It involves the overlapping authority of multiple federal, state, and local agencies;

penalties ranging from fines to prison sentences; civil and criminal liability for

both individuals and the corporations that employ them; and a wide array of stat-

utes under which enforcement can be brought.

1

These statutes structure the

enforcement regime according to the pollution type, with separate rules governing

air, water, solid waste, and other types of pollution.

2

The Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) under the Trump administration

has pursued the lowest number of environmental prosecutions since the mid-

1990s, a notably more lenient approach than that of previous administrations.

3

Although the current EPA has verbalized a continued commitment to enforcing

environmental laws, its mission has been hampered by proposals to significantly

cut the EPA’s budget and the smallest EPA workforce in decades.

4

Given these

changes, it is important for regulated industries and the attorneys that represent

them to stay current with both developments in environmental laws and the

1. See Joshua Ozymy & Melissa L. Jarrel, Comment, EPA’s Criminal Prosecution and Punishment of

Environmental Crimes, 50 Env’t L. Rep. 10452, 10452–453 (2020) (providing an overview of the criminal

enforcement process); David M. Uhlmann, Environmental Crime Comes of Age: The Evolution of Criminal

Enforcement in the Environmental Regulatory Scheme, 2009 UTAH L. REV. 1223, 1224–26 (2009) (giving

general background on rise of statutes criminalizing environmental crimes and causing concern over associated

expansion of prosecutorial discretion); see also Environmental Law Violations, LEGAL INFO. INST., https://www.

law.cornell.edu/wex/environmental_law_violations (last visited Jan. 18, 2021) (providing an overview of

environmental violations and listing relevant federal and state law).

2. See generally David M. Bearden, Claudia Copeland, Linda Luther, James E. McCarthy, Mary Tiemann,

Robert Esworthy, & Jerry H. Yen, Environmental Laws: Summaries of Major Statutes Administered by the

Environmental Protection Agency, CONGR. RSCH. SERV. (2013), https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL30798.pdf

(providing an overview of the statutes for each type of pollutant); cf. Todd S. Aagaard, Environmental Law

Outside the Canon, 89 IND. L.J. 1239, 1274 (2014) (urging evolution towards a more holistic approach rather

than a media-based approach).

3. Fewer Criminal Prosecution of Environmental Crimes Under Trump, TRAC REPS., https://trac.syr.edu/

tracreports/crim/581/ (last visited Jan. 18, 2021) (discussing enforcement of environmental laws from FY2017 to

FY 2019); Ellen Knickmeyer, EPA Criminal Action against Polluters Hits 30-Year Low, ASSOCIATED PRESS

(Jan. 15, 2019), https://apnews.com/article/d72a4d3dfb584d15949c88917b48ddf9#:�:text=WASHINGTON%

20(AP)%20%E2%80%94%20The%20Environmental,prosecution%2C%20Justice%20Department%20data%20show.

4. See Rebecca Beitsch & Rachel Frazin, Trump budget slashes EPA funding, environmental programs, THE

HILL (Feb. 10, 2020), https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/482352-trump-budget-slashes-funding-for-

epa-environmental-programs; Env’t Prot. Agency, EPA’s Budget and Spending, https://www.epa.gov/

planandbudget/budget (last accessed Jan. 18, 2021).

2021] ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES 823