Environmentalists question EPA's priorities

Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Cory Reiss
Published January 13, 2002

Environmentalists are concerned that the war on terrorism is hampering the war on pollution as criminal investigators for the EPA are diverted to homeland security. They argue that the shift of priorities comes as the agency posted its third straight decline in the number of people it referred to the Justice Department for prosecution. Last month, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christie Whitman said that 40 percent of the agency's 232-person criminal enforcement office had been reassigned to assist the FBI and help at the three terrorist crash sites. An official in the criminal office said Friday that such diversion will continue, including teams sent to the Super Bowl in New Orleans and the Olympics in Salt Lake City next month. EPA investigators have been assigned to the international criminal police agency Interpol and the Treasury and Justice departments, among other duties. "Unless the administration pays some attention to it, the perception of lower enforcement is going to begin to manifest itself in higher violations," said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, also known as PEER. "Once industry sees there's no cop on the beat their incentive to comply with the law diminishes." Luke Hester, a spokesman for the EPA, said other federal agencies asked for help because EPA investigators have experience in law enforcement and biochemical investigations. The Justice Department has used EPA criminal staff in anthrax investigations on Capitol Hill. Hester was uncertain how many of the original 91 diverted investigators have returned to their regular duties investigating the worst environmental crimes in the country. An official, however, said new duties are arising that will require similar attention to homeland security from EPA. EPA is hiring another 30 investigators, but how many of them would be assigned homeland security duties is uncertain. John Coequyt, a senior analyst for the Environmental Working Group, said polluters have noticed. "People know that this is happening," he said. "A lot of what EPA does is try to maintain a credible deterrent to environmental crime." This comes as PEER points to data that suggests fewer people are being referred to the Justice Department for prosecution. Criminal enforcement is reserved for the worst cases. According to an analysis by PEER of a database maintained by University of Syracuse's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, individual referrals for prosecution in the 2001 fiscal year were at the lowest level since 1995. The numbers follow a downward slide since fiscal year 1998, when referrals peaked at 486. The 328 referrals in 2001 were 20 percent lower than in 2000. EPA officials said the data is inaccurate. Hester contended that EPA's criminal referrals increased from 237 in 2000 to 256 last fiscal year. Analysts theorized the difference is that the EPA tracks cases, each of which might have multiple defendants, while the database counts each individual as a referral. It's also possible that EPA is going after bigger cases but naming fewer defendants. The Justice Department declines to prosecute many of the people referred to it by EPA. David Burnham, a co-founder of the database, said the data came from the Justice Department. He argued the EPA is reacting the same way the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms did a few years ago when data showed that referrals from ATF dropped 44 percent during the Clinton presidency. After denouncing the conclusions, ATF acknowledged the data was correct. PEER's analysis shows a 53 percent decline between 2000 and 2001 in referrals for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act; a 54 percent drop in referrals under the Clean Air Act; and 28 percent fewer referrals under the Resources Conservation and Recovery Act. The same database shows that EPA referrals to prosecutors in Florida steadily dropped from 49 in 1998 to 10 in 2001. However, declines were not consistent among states. For example, North Carolina remained even in 2001 with its 1998 level of six referrals. According to the database, the decline in referrals follows the criminal office's staffing levels. Like the referrals, staff levels peaked in 1998, with 257 in the criminal office, and dropped the next two years to the current level of 232.