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EPA Enforcement Actions
EPA Enforcement Actions Result in Cleaner Environment
More than $1.3 billion in environmental improvements were secured and more than 181 million pounds of pollution were cut as a result of enforcement activities taken in Region 6 this year. Nationally, more than $4.9 billion in environmental improvements and 890 million pounds in pollution reductions resulted from EPA actions.
“We could not have achieved this successful level of results without the teamwork of our state environmental departments,” EPA Regional Administrator Richard E. Greene said. “Our enforcement professionals work very closely and very effectively with their state counterparts to ensure a cleaner environment and healthier communities.”
EPA’s Civil Enforcement program concentrates on preventing and addressing significant violations of federal environmental laws. Through legal actions, assistance programs, and incentives for voluntary compliance, EPA’s effective environmental enforcement reduces harmful air pollution and the discharge of raw sewage, and cleans up contamination of the land. Civil settlements may include requirements to install pollution controls or clean up contamination, cash penalties and also often include supplemental environmental projects: voluntary projects to clean up the environment that a settling party undertakes in addition to actions required to bring a facility into compliance.
EPA's Criminal Enforcement program investigates and helps to prosecute environmental violations which seriously threaten public health and the environment or involve culpable conduct that may be willful, intentional, or deliberate. Besides the environmental violations, the cases may also have associated U.S. criminal code violations, such as conspiracy, false statements, witness tampering, or interfering with a law enforcement investigation. Criminal enforcement sanctions, which may include incarceration of individuals in addition to monetary fines against individuals, businesses, or corporations, represent the enforcement program's strongest sanction and deterrent.
EPA’s enforcement programs are vital tools in ensuring compliance with the nation’s environmental laws and inspiring businesses, governments, and others to focus on pollution prevention.
Summary of Region 6 Accomplishments for 2006
State by State Enforcement Highlights for Region 6