Criminal Enforcement of Environmental Laws
The criminal enforcement of environmental law is very much alive and remains an extremely potent weapon wielded by the Government in order to enforce environmental laws. Consider the following examples:
?1995: the Summitville Mining Corporation pleads guilty to a variety of criminal counts related to violations of the Clean Water Act and is sentenced to a $20,000,000 fine.
?2000: Central Industries, Inc., a poultry rendering plant in Forest, Mississippi, pleads guilty to 26 felony counts related to illegal discharges and is sentenced to a $13,000,000 fine plus $1,000,000 in restitution.
?2004: Tyco Printed Circuit Group is sentenced to $10,000,000 fines in connection with 12 violations of the Clean Water Act.
If the above examples have not gotten your attention, consider the following: a phalanx of armed men with matching stenciled windbreakers at the front door of your plant with guns drawn demanding access. While it might seem like they are looking for a methamphetamine laboratory at the wrong address, the painful truth is that they are exactly where they want to be. They have not come to arrest a drug dealer or to ferret out dangerous terrorists, but to execute a search warrant which allows them to take thousands of your documents and many of the computers that you use to run your business. They're the Government and this time they're not here to help.
