Managing an Environmental Enforcement Investigation

July 22, 2014
The Legal Intelligencer

Types : Bylined Articles

Criminal enforcement of environmental laws is on the rise. In recent years, the resources available to federal and state agencies have significantly increased. While traditional areas of investigation-solid waste and water pollution-remain active, increased enforcement scrutiny has been directed toward vessel pollution, worker endangerment underlying events like plant explosions, and energy development. In Pennsylvania, regulators have turned their focus to development of the gas-rich Marcellus and Utica shales and the environmental impacts associated with hydraulic fracturing, known as fracking.

While the environmental prosecution sensation is not new, the tools and referral mechanisms to support a heightened level of criminal enforcement are certainly expanding. With an overwhelming number of prosecutorial successes over the past several years, federal and state prosecutors have a renewed interest in using criminal laws to enforce and set public environmental policies. The development of more sophisticated monitoring techniques-such as aerial surveillance and equipment that can read emission plumes-makes the detection of wrongdoing easier. At the same time, agents with traditional law enforcement backgrounds have received extensive training in the complex regulatory schemes under which businesses operate.

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