The EPA recently announced the appointment of Maureen O’Mara as the Special Agent in Charge of its Criminal Investigation Division (CID) in Atlanta, which handles criminal investigations of environmental law violations in the Southeast (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee). Prosecutions of environmental crimes are handled through the U.S. Department of Justice. [News release here: 3/26/09 ]  .

EPA currently maintains its own “most wanted” list (see EPA's Most Wanted List). Most fugitives are wanted for illegally discharging or disposing hazardous waste, but the list also includes fugitives accused of false reporting of waste management systems, illegal sales of R-12 Freon, and even a mechanic who allegedly improperly certified handling of the flight oxygen generators which were identified as a proximate cause of the ValuJet flight 592 crash near Miami in 1996.

The EPA’s criminal enforcement policies and guidelines are also available on-line [EPA's Criminal Enforcement Policies & Guidance]  and EPA provides a summary of its criminal enforcement priorities: “significant violations across all major environmental statutes, including: data fraud cases (e.g., private laboratories submitting false environmental data to state and federal environmental agencies); indiscriminate hazardous waste dumping that resulted in serious injuries and death; industry-wide ocean dumping by cruise ships; oil spills that caused significant damage to waterways, wetlands and beaches; international smuggling of CFC refrigerants that damage the ozone layer and increase skin cancer risk; and illegal handling of hazardous substances such as pesticides and asbestos that exposed children, the poor and other especially vulnerable groups to potentially serious illness.”

It is widely expected that criminal prosecutions will be pursued more vigorously under the Obama administration; therefore, it is essential that anyone who has reason to believe that they or their company is the subject of environmental investigation take steps as quickly as possible to directly address any inquiries.