Enforcing Pollution Control Laws

Economic models are used to show the extent of the difficulties involved in monitoring and enforcing pollution control laws on a continual basis. The authors make several recommendations for policy change. They also show that high rates of compliance can be achieved within tight budget constraints. Originally published in 1986

Environmental Laws and Their Enforcement is a component of Encyclopedia of Social Sciences and Humanities in the global Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS), which is an integrated compendium of twenty one Encyclopedias. The volume on Environmental Laws and Their Enforcement deals, in two volumes , with a myriad of issues of great relevance to our world such as: Sustainable Development and National Governance; History of Environmental Law; International Environmental Law; Constitutional Law; International Binding Mechanisms; Laws Governing Freshwater and Ground Water Pollution; Forestry; Biodiversity Conservation and Endangered Species Protection; International Guidelines and Principles; Compliance Models for Enforcement of Environmental Laws And Regulations; International Environmental Law; Life Support Systems: Law and Policy; The Principle of Sustainable Development in International Development Law; Environmental Pollution Regulations; Social Concerns for Environmental Exposures to Toxic Substances; Regulation of Air and Pollutants. These volumes are aimed at the following five major target audiences: University and College Students, Educators, Professional Practitioners, Research Personnel and Policy Analysts, Managers, and Decision Makers and NGOs.

Contents: (1) Intro.; Federal and State Government Interaction; (2) Statutory Framework for Enforcement of Pollution Control Laws and Key Players: Key Players in Environ. Enforcement and Compliance: EPA; U.S. Dept. of Justice; Other Federal Agencies; States and ¿Delegated Authority¿; Citizens; (3) Enforcement at Federal Facilities: Enforcement Response and Compliance Tools; Monitoring, Inspections, and Evaluations; Civil Admin. Actions; Civil and Criminal Judicial Enforcement; Sanctions and Penalties: Penalties Assessed to Federal Facilities; Environ. Justice and Enforcement/Compliance (E/C); Compliance Assistance and Incentive Approaches; (4) Funding for E/C Activities. Examples of Reported Enforcement Actions and Penalties Over Time. Illus. and tables.

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.

Monitoring and enforcement issues must be analysed when determining the effectiveness of pollution control regulation, and clearly influence choices about how to regulate. This book demonstrates how an economic analysis of law enforcement can generate important insights into how best to enforce pollution control regulation. It seeks to provide a clear and accessible way into the law and economics literature on enforcement. More specifically, it uses Gary Becker's deterrence model which, by differentiating between two enforcement variables (namely the probability of apprehension and conviction and the severity of sanction), facilitates a comparison of the effectiveness of different enforcement tools in inducing desirable behaviour. As such, it provides a valuable analytical tool in considering how best to pursue cost-effective enforcement. Major themes to be addressed include Becker's deterrence model and expansions thereof, reasons for compliance, environmental enforcement strategies and the importance of a deterrence threat and formal pollution control law enforcement mechanisms such as prosecution and criminal sanctions, administrative mechanisms and civil liability. The book argues that in pursuing cost-effective enforcement much can be learned from examining enforcement practices in different jurisdictions, and to this end the author examines pollution control laws, enforcement strategies and sanctions in Australia, Canada and England and Wales. The book makes an important contribution to existing literature on environmental law enforcement, but its value extends beyond this. The theoretical framework adopted and the range of issues discussed make it of interest to regulatory and public law scholars more generally.

Air Pollution Control Law provides explanation of the legislative provisions, regulatory requirements, and court decisions that comprise the body of air pollution control law.

As a result of enforcement actions and settlements for noncompliance with federal pollution control requirements, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reported that, for FY2007, regulated entities committed to invest an estimated $10.6 billion for judicially mandated controls and cleanup, and for implementing mutually agreed upon (supplemental) environmentally beneficial projects. EPA estimates that these efforts achieved commitments to reduce 900 million pounds of pollutants in the environment, primarily from air and water. EPA also assessed more than $145 million in civil and criminal fines and restitution during FY2007. Nevertheless, noncompliance with federal pollution control laws remains a continuing concern. The overall effectiveness of the current enforcement organizational framework, the balance between state autonomy and federal oversight, and the adequacy of funding are long-standing congressional concerns. This report provides an overview of the statutory framework, key players, infrastructure, resources, tools, and operations associated with enforcement and compliance of the major pollution control laws and regulations administered by EPA. It also outlines the roles of federal (including regional offices) and state regulators, as well as the regulated community. Understanding the many facets of how all federal pollution control laws are enforced, and the responsible parties involved, can be challenging. Enforcement of the considerable body of these laws involves a complex framework and organizational setting. The array of enforcement/compliance tools employed to achieve and maintain compliance includes monitoring, investigation, administrative and judicial (civil and criminal) actions and penalties, and compliance assistance and incentive approaches. Most compliance violations are resolved administratively by the states and EPA. EPA concluded 4,624 final administrative penalty orders in FY2006. Civil judicial actions, which may be filed by states or EPA, are the next most frequent enforcement action. EPA may refer civil cases to the Department of Justice (DOJ), referring 286 civil cases in FY2006. The U.S. Attorney General's Office and DOJ's Environmental Crimes Section, or the State Attorneys General, in coordination with EPA criminal investigators and general counsel, may prosecute criminal violations against individuals or entities who knowingly disregard environmental laws or are criminally negligent. Federal appropriations for environmental enforcement and compliance activities generally have remained relatively constant in recent fiscal years. Total funding for EPA's enforcement activities in FY2007 was $548.9 million. Many contend that overall funding for enforcement activities has not kept pace with inflation or with the increasingly complex federal pollution control requirements.

Annotation. Many of China's rivers and lakes are strongly polluted, the air in cities is amongst the worst in the world, while some have warned that if the country is not careful it may soon have insufficient arable land to feed its population. This book looks at why the protection of natural resources through stricter legislation and more stringent law enforcement has been so difficult. It does so through a combination of a local case with comparative and theoretical insights about lawmaking, compliance and enforcement. It offers a unique view on how law functions in the world's largest legal system, and how such law interacts with the social, economic and political circumstances at hand. This book offers an incomparable body of empirical and theoretical knowledge for those interested in how law functions in China, as well as those interested in the workings of regulatory lawmaking, compliance, and enforcement in a comparative perspective. This title can be previewed in Google Books - http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN9789087280130.