Enforcing Federal Pollution Control Laws

As part of its mission to protect human health and the environment, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) enforcement office maintains civil and criminal enforcement programs to help enforce the requirements of major federal environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act. EPA’s civil and criminal enforcement programs work with the Department of Justice (DOJ), and in some cases States, to take legal actions to bring polluters into compliance with federal laws. While civil enforcement actions require polluters to pay penalties and take other corrective actions, criminal enforcement actions may also include imprisonment. EPA estimates that these efforts achieved commitments to reduce 3.9 billion pounds of pollutants in the environment, primarily from air and water. EPA also assessed more than $195 million in civil and criminal fines and restitution during FY2008. Nevertheless, non-compliance with federal pollution control laws remains a continuing concern. This book focuses on the EPA’s vow to pursue civil and criminal violations of environmental laws. This book consists of public documents which have been located, gathered, combined, reformatted, and enhanced with a subject index, selectively edited and bound to provide easy access.