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Environmental Law

Environmental Crimes Blog

All about environmental crimes and enforcement, from pre-trial to trial strategy.

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Last Entry: March 31, 2011 at 12:35:06

USEPA Enforcement and Accomplishments Report for 2009

Posted on December 24, 2009
On December 23, 2009, the USEPA released its enforcement results for fiscal year 2009 (which runs from September 1, 2008 through August 31, 2009). The USEPA is also presenting its report in a new web-based tool and interactive map. This...

Meet the Regulators ? Peggy Hatch

Posted on December 22, 2009
On December 21, 2009, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal announced that Peggy Hatch will be the secretary of the state Department of Environmental Quality. Ms. Hatch replaces Dr. Harold Leggett who will resign effective January 15, 2010. From a newspaper article...

Meet the Regulators ? Cynthia Giles

Posted on December 18, 2009
Cynthia Giles is the new Assistant Administrator for the USEPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance and will direct the USEPA's enforcement efforts in the Obama administration. Prior to her appointment, she served as the Vice President and Director of...

Texas Environmental Crimes Conviction

Posted on December 15, 2009
Today, December 15, 2009, the TCEQ announced the conviction of a Denton County man, as a result of a forgery investigation conducted by the TCEQ Environmental Crimes Unit. On November 24, 2009, Claude Dean (?C. D.?) Stang, owner of Texas...

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Clean Water Act Revisions - S. 787 ? A Correction

Posted on December 06, 2009
The Baucus-Klobuchar-Boxer amendment to the Clean Water Restoration Act (S. 787), approved by the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on June 18, 2009, proposes to restore the protections for waters of the United States protected prior to the Supreme...

TCEQ Releases Its Annual Enforcement Report

Posted on December 05, 2009
On December 3, 2009, the TCEQ released its fiscal year 2009 enforcements accomplishments report. You will note that I have previously blogged on how I thought Texas lagged in enforcement activity. While bragging about the total penalties assessed, there is...

Clean Water Act Revisions - S. 473 and H.R. 2421

Posted on December 04, 2009
The proposed revision of the Clean Water Act would delete a single word from the CWA and would greatly expand the authority to regulate water pollution. In June 2009, the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee approved legislation dropping the...

Texas Gets Serious About Criminal Enforcement

Posted on December 02, 2009
On November 20, 2009, Travis County (in cooperation with the TCEQ) announced the creation of an environmental crimes prosecutor and appointed Patty Robertson, an experienced white collar crime prosecutor, to fill the position. According to the Travis County District Attorney?s...

Another Chicken Shit Case ? or a Turkey of a Case?

Posted on December 01, 2009
Possibly not. On November 30, 2009, a federal grand jury in Greensboro, North Carolina returned an indictment charging House of Raeford Farms Inc. and its plant manager, Gregory Steenblock, with multiple violations of the Clean Water Act for illegally discharging...

A Mid-Week Diversion

Posted on November 25, 2009
This has nothing to do with environmental crimes, at all; however . . .. I do not know if it is a good thing or not; however, the woman who cuts my hair was on Judge Judy. Here is a...

Enforcement by the TCEQ is a Joke

Posted on November 19, 2009
The other day, I received an e-mail from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (?TCEQ?). I am a subscriber to its notification services. The e-mail screams out: ?TCEQ APPROVES FINES TOTALING $816,375.? You think: Wow, they are really doing something...

A Win for the Good Guys?

Posted on November 16, 2009
On Friday, October 20th, United States District Judge Henry Lee Adams conducted a post-conviction hearing and at the close of the evidence issued a ruling from the bench that immediately terminated Kassian Navigation?s probation. The company had previously voluntarily accepted...

A Budding Turf War???

Posted on October 26, 2009
On October 21, 2009, Senator Urbin introduced a bill that would purportedly require cruise ships and other vessels to obtain an NPDES permit to dischage sewage (toilet waste) and other waste waters. The permit would be issued by the USEPA....

A Rant of Sorts

Posted on October 17, 2009
This post has nothing to do with environmental criminal law ? it has to do with Federal judges and what Federal judges need to do more of ? levy sanctions on stupid, idiotic, incompetent lawyering. The back drop to this...

More CWA Enforcement Promised?

Posted on October 16, 2009
On October 15, 2009, Lisa P. Jackson, the USEPA Administrator, announced that the USEPA is stepping up its enforcement efforts under the CWA. Dubbed the ?Clean Water Action Enforcement Plan,? the USEPA claims it is revamping its compliance and enforcement...

Illegal Importation of Coral

Posted on October 16, 2009
On October 14, 2009, the USDOJ announced that Gunther Wenzek, a German national, pleaded guilty in the United States District Court for the District of Oregon, to one count of smuggling coral into the United States. Sentencing is scheduled for...

Baggett Sentenced

Posted on October 15, 2009
Sorry about the period with no posts ? I just plain got busy . . .. On October 14, 2009, the USEPA announced that Larkin Baggett was sentenced to twenty (20) years in prison by the United States District Court...

More Enforcement from the Feds on the Horizon?

Posted on September 14, 2009
On Monday, July 6, 2009, Inside EPA reported that the USEPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, in a July 2, 2009, memorandum sent to Office of Enforcement & Compliance Assurance Assistant Administrator Cynthia Giles, wrote that water in the United States was...

A Name and a Face Behind Enforcement ? Meet the Regulators

Posted on September 08, 2009
You have probably never heard of him. Walter Benjamin Fisherow. He is one of the career lawyers at the USDOJ in the Environmental Enforcement Section and there is an article on him in today?s Washington Post. Mr. Fisherow is the...

Clean Water Act Civil Enforcement

Posted on August 24, 2009
On August 18, 2009, the USDOJ announced that Cooper Land Development, Inc., a luxury home development company, headquartered in Rogers, Ark., had agreed to settle allegations that Cooper had violated the Clean Water Act. According to the Consent Decree, Cooper...

An Interesting Article

Posted on August 10, 2009
In today?s Fort Worth Business Press, Cheryl Coon, a partner with Shannon, Gracey, Ratliff & Miller LLP, writes an interesting article on why businesses should hire an environmental lawyer. The reasons include: 1. Environmental attorneys speak the language...

The Cosco Busan

Posted on July 21, 2009
On Friday, July 17, 2009, the USDOJ announced that John Joseph Cota, the pilot of the Cosco Busan was sentenced to serve ten (10) months in federal prison. The Cosco Busan, a 900-foot long container ship, collided with the San...

Not an Environmental Crime, but a Crime Nonetheless

Posted on July 06, 2009
I recently returned from a long weekend trip to San Diego, California with my wife to escape the 100� heat in the Dallas/Fort Worth area. I got in some great golf at Torrey Pines and the wife got in some...

W.R. Grace Redux

Posted on July 01, 2009
The National Law Journal sat down with David Krakoff, wh represented Harry Eschenbach, the former director of health and safety for W.R. Grace?s industrial chemicals group. The interview is an interesting read on how the case turned in favor of...

W.R. Grace ? A Follow-up

Posted on June 19, 2009
On June 18, 2009, the USEPA announced that it was declaring a ?clean-up emergency? for Libby, Montana for the asbestos contamination resulting from mining operations. You can read the full article here http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/06/17/montana.asbestos/index...

This Goes Under The Category Of Just Plain Stupid

Posted on June 06, 2009
The Tyler Morning Telegraph is reporting that three men have been arrested for allegedly dumping gasoline into a creek. The Van Zandt County Sheriff?s office and the Grand Saline Police Department responded to a citizen?s complaint of illegal dumping on...

An Illegal Search?

Posted on June 03, 2009
On June 3, 2009, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (?TCEQ?) announced that starting the first week of June 2009, it would use a Bell Jet Ranger helicopter to fly over many industrial facilities located on the Houston Ship Channel....

This Is Just Incredible - Follow-up

Posted on May 18, 2009
On February 15, 2008, I wrote an entry regarding a case in East Texas regarding a family dairy farm. The case was started by a complaint made by a neighbor (she alleged that he dairy farm was discharging material from...

W.R. Grace Instruction to the Jury Regarding Robert Locke Testimony

Posted on May 15, 2009
Below is the instruction given by the judge in the W.R. Grace case regarding the testimony of one of the government?s key witnesses. One expects better from our government . . .. Ladies and gentlemen, you are now going to...

A Chink In the Armor?

Posted on May 14, 2009
On May 4, 2009, the United States Supreme Court decided Flores-Figueroa v. United States, 555 U.S. ___, (2009). It was an identify theft criminal prosecution. What makes it of interest in the environmental crimes arena is that the Court found...

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