Environmental Crimes

• Author: Isabel Wigley/Justin Bennett/Nicholas Endo/Raul Paez/Michael Poletti/Catherine Sherman/Megan Shubert
• Pages: 715-779

ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES

I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 717

A. Criminal Versus Civil Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719

B. Criminal Enforcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 719

C. Interaction with Other Criminal Violations . . . . . . . . . . . . . 720

II. GENERAL ISSUES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

A. Overview of the Elements of an Environmental Criminal

Violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

B. Liability. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

1. Individual Liability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 721

2. Corporate Liability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 723

C. Common Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 724

1. Constitutional and Procedural Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . 724

2. Other Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 729

D. Voluntary Compliance and Sentencing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 730

E. Sentencing Guidelines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 733

III. CLEAN AIR ACT. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734

A. Purpose & Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 734

B. Violations of CAA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736

1. Substantive Violations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736

a. Implementation Plans for National Ambient Air

Quality Standards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 736

b. Other CAA Provisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738

i. National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air

Pollutants (“NESHAP”). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738

ii. New Source Performance Standards (“NSPS”) 739

iii. Sulfur Dioxide Regulation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740

iv. Stratospheric Ozone Protection . . . . . . . . . . . 741

2. Statement and Filing-related Violations . . . . . . . . . . . . 741

3. Endangerment Violations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743

C. Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 743

IV. CLEAN WATER ACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744

A. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 744

B. Elements of a CWA Offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745

1. Violation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745

a. Definitions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745

i. Person . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 745

ii. Pollutants. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746

iii. Point Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 746

iv. Navigable Waters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748

715

v. Discharge. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 748

b. Criminal Provisions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 749

i. National Pollutant Discharge Elimination

System (“NPDES”) Permit Program . . . . . . . 749

ii. Monitoring, Reporting, and Regulatory

Searches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 750

iii. Discharge of Oil and Hazardous Substances . . 751

2. Intent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 752

a. Negligence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753

b. Knowing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 753

c. Knowing Endangerment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754

C. Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 754

D. Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 756

V. SAFE DRINKING WATER ACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757

A. Purpose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 757

B. Elements of SDWA Offenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758

1. Enforcement of Ban on Tampering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 758

2. Underground Injection of Contaminants . . . . . . . . . . . . 759

VI. COMPREHENSIVE ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSE, COMPENSATION, AND

LIABILITY ACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759

A. Purpose & Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 759

B. CERCLA Offenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 760

C. Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 762

D. Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764

VII. RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND RECOVERY ACT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765

A. Purpose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 765

B. Elements of an RCRA Offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766

1. Violation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 766

2. Intent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767

a. Knowing Violation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 767

b. Knowing Endangerment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 769

C. Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 770

D. Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 771

VIII. TOXIC SUBSTANCES CONTROL ACT 772

A. Purpose

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772

B. Elements of a TSCA Offense 772

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

1. Violation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 772

2. Intent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774

C. Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774

D. Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775

IX. THE FEDERAL INSECTICIDE, FUNGICIDE, AND RODENTICIDE ACT . . . . . . 775

A. Purpose. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 775

716 AMERICAN CRIMINAL LAW REVIEW [Vol. 60:715

B. Elements of a FIFRA Offense . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 776

1. Violation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 777

2. Intent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 778

C. Defenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 778

D. Penalties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 779

I. INTRODUCTION

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

This regime involves: the overlapping authority of federal, state, and local agen-

cies; 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

statutes under which enforcement can be brought.

1

See generally Joshua Ozymy & Melissa L. Jarrell, Comment, EPA’s Criminal Prosecution and Punishment

of Environmental Crimes, 50 ENV’T L. REP. 10452, 10452–53 (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 Oct. 1, 2022) (providing an overview of

environmental violations and listing relevant federal and state law).

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

See generally Laws and Executive Orders, U.S. EPA, https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/laws-and-

executive-orders (last visited Oct. 1, 2022) (listing laws and executive orders governing federal regulation);

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 one).

Although the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) under the Trump

administration pursued the lowest number of environmental prosecutions since the

mid-1990s,

3

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

tracreports/crim/581/ (last visited Oct. 1, 2022) (discussing enforcement of environmental laws from FY 2017 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.

the Biden administration has taken a more aggressive approach to

environmental justice.

4

See WHITE HOUSE, https://www.whitehouse.gov/environmentaljustice/ (last visited Oct. 2, 2022) (detailing

intiatives taken by the Biden Administration to promote environmental justice).

President Biden established an Environmental and Climate

Justice Division within the Department of Justice (“DOJ”).

5

In 2022, the Biden

Administration also successfully championed the largest federal investment in

efforts to reduce the effects of climate change. In response to the Administration’s

legislative and executive efforts, the DOJ has indicated a general desire to increase

1.

2.

3.

4.

5. See id; see also Exec. Order No. 14008: Climate Crisis: Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,

86 Fed. Reg. 7619 (Jan. 27, 2021).

2023] ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES 717