Nearly one-half of the Division's lawyers bring cases against those who violate
the nation's civil and criminal pollution-control
laws. Others defend environmental challenges
to government programs and activities and represent the United
States in matters concerning the stewardship of the nation's natural
resources and public lands. The Division is also responsible
for the acquisition of real property
by eminent domain for the federal government, and brings and defends
cases under the wildlife protection laws.
In addition, the Division litigates cases concerning Indian
rights and claims. Many of the cases handled by the Division
are precedent-setting and challenge and hone the skills of the
Division's
dedicated corps of lawyers. Some of these cases are discussed in
the Division's report on recent accomplishments.
Prevention
and Clean Up of Pollution One of the Division's primary responsibilities
is to enforce federal civil and criminal environmental laws such
as:
- the Clean Air Act to reduce air pollution
- the Clean Water Act to reduce water pollution and protect wetlands
- the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act to ensure that hazardous wastes are properly stored, transported, and disposed
- the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (or "Superfund"), which requires those who are responsible for hazardous waste sites to pay for their clean up
- the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Lead Hazard Reduction Act, which directly protect the health of Americans
The main federal agencies that the Division represents in this area are the United
States Environmental Protection Agency and the United States Army
Corps of Engineers. The Division Sections that carry out this work
are the Environmental Crimes Section,
the Environmental Enforcement Section,
and the Environmental Defense Section.
Challenges
to Federal Programs and Activities. The Division's cases frequently
involve allegations that a federal program or action violates Constitutional
provisions or environmental statutes. Examples include regulatory
takings cases, in which the plaintiff claims he or she has been
deprived of property without just compensation by a federal program
or activity, or suits alleging that a federal agency has failed
to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by,
for instance, failing to issue an environmental impact statement.
Both takings and NEPA cases can affect vital federal programs such
as the Nation's defense capabilities (including military preparedness
exercises, weapons programs, and military research), the NASA space
program, recombinant DNA research, and beneficial recreational opportunities
such as the rails-to-trails program. These cases also involve challenges
to regulations promulgated to implement the Nation's anti-pollution
statutes, such as the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act, or
activities at federal facilities that are claimed to violate such
statutes. The Natural Resources
Section and the Environmental Defense
Section share responsibility for handling these cases. The Division's
main clients in this area include the Department of Defense and
the United States Environmental Protection Agency.
Stewardship of Public Lands and Natural Resources. A substantial
portion of the Division's work includes litigation under a plethora
of statutes related to the management of public lands and associated
natural and cultural resources. All varieties of public lands are
affected by the Division's litigation docket, ranging from entire
ecosystems, such as the Nation's most significant sub-tropical wetlands
(the Everglades) and the Nation's largest rain forest (the Tongass),
to individual rangelands or wildlife refuges. Examples also include
original actions before the Supreme Court to address interstate
boundary and water allocation issues, suits over management decisions
affecting economic, recreational and religious uses of the National
Parks and National Forests, and actions to recover royalties and
revenues from exploitation of natural resources. The Division represents
all the land management agencies of the United States including,
for instance, the Forest Service, the Park Service, the Bureau of
Land Management, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Fish and Wildlife
Service, the Department of Transportation, and the Department of
Defense. The Natural Resouces
Section is primarily responsible for these cases.
Property Acquisition for Federal Needs. Another significant
portion of the Division's caseload consists of non-discretionary
eminent domain litigation. This important work, undertaken with
Congressional direction or authority, involves the acquisition of
land for important national projects such as National Parks, the
construction of federal buildings including courthouses, and for
national security related purposes. The Division's Land
Acquisition Section is responsible for this litigation.
Wildlife Protection The Division's Wildlife
and Marine Resources Section is responsible for civil cases
arising under the fish and wildlife conservation laws, including
violations of the Endangered Species Act, which protects endangered
and threatened animals and plants, and the Marine Mammal Protection
Act, which protects animals such as whales, seals and dolphins.
The Environmental Crimes Section also brings criminal prosecutions under these laws against, for example, people who are found smuggling wildlife and plants into the United States.
There is a major worldwide black market
for some endangered species or products made from them. The main
federal agencies that the Division represents in this area are the
Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service.
Indian Rights and Claims The Division's Indian
Resources Section also litigates on behalf of federal agencies
when they are protecting the rights and resources of federally recognized
Indian tribes and their members. This includes both defending against
challenges to statutes and agency action designed to protect tribal
interests and bringing suits on behalf of federal agencies to protect
tribal rights and natural resources. The rights and resources typically
at issue include water rights, the ability to acquire reservation
land, hunting and fishing rights, and other natural resources. The
Division's Natural Resources
Section also defends claims asserted by Indian tribes against
the United States on grounds that the United States has failed to
live up to its obligations to the tribes. The main federal agency
that the Division represents in connection with this work is the
Bureau of Indian Affairs. Other Matters
The Division also handles the initial appeals of all cases litigated
by Division attorneys in the trial courts, and work closely with
the Office of the Solicitor General on Division cases that reach
the Supreme Court. These cases are handled by the Appellate
Section. In addition, the Division is responsible for, among
other things, supporting the work of the Assistant Attorney General
in the development of policy concerning the enforcement of the nation's
environmental laws, reviewing and commenting on legislation that
would effect the work of the Division, reviewing litigation filed
under the various citizen suit provisions in the environmental laws,
and evaluating and responding to requests that the United States
participate as an amicus in various matters. Most of this work is
handled by the Law and Policy Section.
SECTIONS (Organization Chart)
ENVIRONMENTAL CRIMES SECTION
The Environmental
Crimes Section is responsible for prosecuting individuals and corporations
that have violated laws designed to protect the environment. It
is at the forefront in changing corporate and public awareness to
recognize that environmental violations are serious infractions
that transgress basic interests and values. The Section works closely
with criminal investigators for the Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Fish and
Wildlife Service (FWS) in dealing with violations of such statutes
as the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act (RCRA), and the Comprehensive Environmental Response,
Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA, more commonly known as Superfund),
the Lacey Act, and the Endangered Species, among other statutes.
ENVIRONMENTAL
ENFORCEMENT SECTION
The Environmental
Enforcement Section is one of the largest litigating sections in
the Department and includes nearly one-half of the Division's lawyers.
The Section is responsible for bringing civil judicial actions under
most federal laws enacted to protect public health and the environment
from the adverse effects of pollution, such as the Clean Air Act,
Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Oil Pollution Act, RCRA
and the Superfund law (CERCLA). The breadth of the Section's practice
is extensive and challenging. It includes cases of national scope,
such as cases against multiple members of an identified industry,
to obtain broad compliance with the environmental laws. Through
its enforcement of the Superfund law, the Section seeks to compel
responsible parties either to clean up hazardous waste sites or
to reimburse the United States for the cost of cleanup, thereby
ensuring that they, and not the public, bear the burden of paying
for cleanup. The Superfund law is also a basis of the Section's
actions to recover damages for injury to natural resources that
are under the trusteeship of federal agencies. ENVIRONMENTAL
DEFENSE SECTION
The Environmental Defense Section represents the United States in complex civil litigation arising under a broad range of environmental statutes. EDS is the only section in the Environment Division that routinely handles cases in both federal circuit and district courts. EDS defends rules issued by EPA and other agencies under the pollution control laws, brings enforcement actions against those who destroy wetlands in violation of the Clean Water Act, and defends the United States against challenges to its cleanup and compliance actions at Superfund sites, federally-owned facilities and private sites.
Examples of the Section's work include: defending EPA's regulations governing permitting of discharges from factory farms, its ambitious “Clean Air Interstate Rule” aimed at attaining air quality standards for ozone and fine particulate matter in the eastern half of the country, the Agency’s efforts to revamp the Clean Air Act new source review program, and its safety standards for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository in Nevada; defending challenges to the United States' implementation of international treaties involving the elimination of chemical weapons; and prosecuting civil enforcement actions under the Clean Water Act that have protected hundreds of thousands of wetland acres and recovered millions of dollars in penalties.
NATURAL
RESOURCES SECTION
The Natural
Resources Section, which is comprised of more than 65 lawyers
working
in five teams, manages litigation under a diverse and extensive
group of more than eighty statutes and treaties out of Washington,
D.C. and three field offices. The Section's docket includes cases
in virtually every U.S. district court of the Nation, its territories
and possessions, the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, and in state
courts. The subject matters include federal land, resource and
ecosystem
management decisions challenged under a wide variety of federal
environmental statutes and involving lands as large as the Forest
Service's 191 million acre inventory to tracts as small as individual
wildlife refuges; vital national security programs involving military
preparedness, nuclear materials management, and weapons system
research;
billions of dollars in constitutional claims of Fifth Amendment
takings covering a broad spectrum of federal regulatory and physical
activities; Indian gaming and the United States' trust responsibility
toward Tribes; a panoply of cultural resource matters including
cases related to historic buildings, repatriation of ancient human
remains or salvage of shipwrecks (even the R.M.S. Titanic); preserving
federal water rights and prosecuting water rights adjudications;
and ensuring proper mineral royalty payments to the Treasury).
The
Section's clients have included virtually every major Federal executive
branch agency. Attorneys coming to the Section will have the opportunity
to develop their own challenging and varied case load.
WILDLIFE
AND MARINE RESOURCES SECTION
The Wildlife and Marine Resources Section litigates civil cases under federal wildlife laws and laws concerning the protection of marine fish and mammals.
Civil litigation, particularly
under the Endangered Species Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act,
often pits the needs of protected species against pressures for
development by both the Federal Government and private enterprise.
INDIAN
RESOURCES SECTION
The Indian
Resources Section represents the United States in its trust capacity
for Indian tribes and their members. These suits include establishing
water rights, establishing and protecting hunting and fishing rights,
collecting damages for trespass on Indian lands, and establishing
reservation boundaries and rights to land. The Indian Resources
Section also devotes approximately half of its efforts toward defending
federal statutes, programs, and decisions intended to benefit Indians
and Tribes. The litigation is of vital interest to the Indians and
helps to fulfill an important responsibility of the federal government.
LAND
ACQUISITION SECTION
The Land Acquisition
Section is responsible for acquiring land through condemnation proceedings,
for use by the Federal Government for purposes ranging from establishing
public parks to creating missile sites. The Land Acquisition Section
is also responsible for reviewing and approving title to lands acquired
by direct purchase for the same purposes. The legal and factual
issues involved are often complex and can include the power of the
United States to condemn under specific acts of Congress, ascertainment
of the market value of property, applicability of zoning regulations,
and problems related to subdivisions, capitalization of income,
and the admissibility of evidence. LAW
AND POLICY SECTION
The Law
and Policy Section staff advises and assists
the Assistant Attorney General on environmental legal and policy
questions, particularly those that affect multiple sections in
the
Division. Working with the Office of Legislative Affairs, it coordinates
the Division's response to legislative proposals and Congressional
requests, prepares for appearances of Division witnesses before
Congressional committees, and drafts legislative proposals in connection
with the Division's work, for example, the implementation of litigation
settlements. Other duties include responding to congressional and
other correspondence, and FOIA requests as well as a myriad of
citizens'
requests, and serving as the Division's ethics officer and counselor,
alternative dispute resolution counselor, and liaison with state
and local governments. Attorneys in the Section also litigate amicus
cases, undertake other special litigation projects, and coordinate
the Division's involvement in international legal matters.
APPELLATE
SECTION
The Appellate
Section's work involves cases arising under the more than 200 statutes
for which the Division has litigation responsibility. Section attorneys
brief and argue appeals in all thirteen federal circuit courts of
appeals around the country, as well as in state courts of appeals
and supreme courts. The Section handles appeals in all cases tried
in the lower courts by any of the sections within the Division;
it also oversees or handles directly appeals in cases within the
Division's jurisdiction that were tried in the lower courts by U.S.
Attorney Offices. The Section's responsibility also includes petitions
for review filed directly in the courts of appeals in environmental
or natural resource cases involving the Department of Energy, the
Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the Surface Transportation
Board. The Section works closely with Justice's Office of the Solicitor
General, making recommendations whether to appeal adverse district
court decisions or to seek Supreme Court review of adverse appellate
decisions. The Section writes draft briefs for the Solicitor General
in Division cases before the Supreme Court. EXECUTIVE
OFFICE
The Executive
Office provides management and administrative support to the Environment
and Natural Resources Division, including financial management,
human resources, automation, security, and litigation support. The
Executive Office takes full advantage of cutting-edge technology
to provide sophisticated automation facilities for its employees,
including legal research, word processing, Internet access, electronic
mail, litigation support, case management and timekeeping systems,
to help the Division's attorneys continue to achieve exceptional
litigation results for the United States.
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