There are several laws that aimed at protecting human health and environment. The government and private parties are allowed to enforce the federal environmental laws. The government has the resources and tools required to enforce environmental laws and compels compliance with the environmental regulations and laws. Criminal and civil environmental enforcement are streamlined towards protection of environment and health. The criminal environmental enforcement seeks to punish the actions that the society view as harmful to the environment and health of people. The civil, environmental enforcement is streamlined towards individual parties who should be compensated for the harm caused by the environmental disaster and to prevent continued harm. The civil remedies and criminal penalties should align with the environmental laws, which include Clean Water Act, Oil Pollution Act, Clean Air Act, Resource Conservation, and Recovery Act, as well as Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act.
Enforcement of environmental laws and regulation play a crucial role in the protection of the environment and human health. There are organizations that play a key role in the enforcement of environmental laws. Environmental Protection Agency and Army Corps of Engineers are the main enforcement agencies in the United States. Also, there are private agencies that may initiate enforcement actions. The government has the resources and tools required to enforce environmental laws and compels compliance with the environmental regulations and laws. Those organizations that to do not comply with the laws are penalized. There are differences and similarities between the criminal and civil environmental enforcement. EPA (Environmental Protection Agencies’) focuses on programs that are streamlined towards activities that threaten the environment and health of people. The agencies enforce the environmental laws, investigate cases, conduct forensic analysis, provide legal guidance, as well as collecting evidence.
There are important laws that assist in civil and criminal environmental enforcement. It includes the CWA (Clean Water Act), CAA (Clean Air Act), RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act), as well as FIFRA (Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act). The BP oil spill is one of the marine accident in the history of the petroleum industry. The oil spill caused environmental problems, health consequences, and economic issues. The oil spill led to civil and criminal environmental enforcement.
Criminal and civil environmental enforcement are streamlined towards protection of environment and health. Criminal enforcement bear the possibility of monetary fines and incarceration that are implemented by EPA. Since the establishment of criminal enforcement program most environmental crimes have been prosecuted and classified under the CWA, CAA, and RCRA (Scotts, D & Taylor, 2014). Some of the crimes that have been investigated by EPA include oil spills, illegal handling, and disposal of hazardous wastes, emission of toxic pollutants, smuggling of ozone depleting chemicals, as well as pesticides violations. The criminal program works with the regulatory and civil programs to align investigation and regional priorities, especially on cases that are suspected of criminal and civil violations.
The criminal enforcement helps the civil program to identify the potential environmental activities that are caused by disasters. Also, the civil enforcement benefit from the criminal enforcement programs through training on documentation, and evidence collection. Analytically, the criminal environmental enforcement ensures that criminal sanctions are implemented on environmental violators. The punishments and fines depend on the level of damages caused by the environmental disaster. On the other hand, civil enforcement is streamlined towards civil remedies. The EPA administrator commences the civil action for temporary or permanent injunctive relief.
Criminal environmental enforcement collect data on various cases that are related to environmental issues. The data helps in identifying the severity of the crime, nature if the pollutants, human health impacts, as well as environmental impacts. The relationship between civil and criminal enforcement arise through coordination (Situ, & Emmons, 2000). They both coordinate in establishing the impacts and remedies that should be enforced on environmental violators. The coordination process improves and increases the flow of information. It ensures that prosecutors on environmental crimes have sufficient information to guide them in developing the case.
The differences between the criminal and civil enforcement stem from the goals of the enforcement programs. The criminal environmental enforcement seeks to punish the actions that the society view as harmful to the environment and health of people. On the other hand, the civil, environmental enforcement is streamlined towards individual parties who should be compensated for the harm caused by the environmental disaster and to prevent continued harm. It means that criminal enforcement deals with environmental crimes that are against the government, state or society. The civil enforcement deal with environmental cases against a specific person or part.
The BP oil spill is an example of a case with numerous legal question and lawsuits. In a critical analysis, the BP oil spill leads to civil and criminal environmental enforcement. The BP oil spill led to health hazards and environmental degradation. The environmental and wildlife defenders assert that BP should be suited for an unauthorized stake of endangering species. The oil spill became a threat to endangered species such as sea turtle, sperm whale, Gulf sturgeons, and manatee (Situ, & Emmons, 2000). The focuses are streamlined toward the CWA. Also, the lawsuits focused on the failure of the company to undertake examinations on the spill risks. Under the CWA (Clean Water Act), the company was liable for the damages caused by the oil spill. The company was accused of not stopping the massive leak. The Clean Water Act allows the citizens to enforce when the government and the polluter fail to act. The citizen enforcement focused on seeking maximum penalty for the company.
The BP catastrophe was against the Clean Water Act because it polluted the waters for fishing, wildlife, and recreation. The government and private agencies were expected to enforce the laws that were violated by the BP. The BP oil spill demonstrates a lack of oversight by the government. The environmental laws permit the litigation on environmental cases. The litigation process should be conclusions under the waste, contamination, as well as water programs.
The civil and criminal enforcement ensure that the BP oil spill became accountable for billions of dollars in civil and criminal penalties. The penalties were aimed at benefitting the Gulf States. The criminal and civil enforcement created an avenue for the Gulf state to recovery from the oil spill. Also, the enforcement process was aimed at preventing such environmental disasters from occurring in the future. The Clean Water Act validates that companies will be answerable for their conduct and should comply with the environmental laws.
The criminal enforcement is designed to benefit the Gulf regions. The penalty that the company received was dedicated to restoring, preserving acquiring and conserving the state resources that the oil spill damaged. It included the wildlife habitat, birds, coastal environments and ecosystems (Riesel, 2007). On the other hand, the civil enforcement secured $1 billion for civil violations under the Clean Water Act. The civil penalty was streamlined towards funding the projects within the Gulf States. The civil actions were aligned with the Oil Pollution Act. The BP was liable for damaging natural resources. The civil enforcement asserted that the oil spill was as a result of BP negligence.
In the general perspective, it is evident that the civil and criminal environmental enforcement work together in protecting human health and environment. There are several environmental laws that are aligned with the criminal and civil enforcement. The environmental laws include Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Oil Pollution Act, Resource Conservation, and Recovery Act, as well as Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act. The civil remedies and criminal penalties should align with the environmental laws. The government and private parties are allowed to enforce the federal environmental regulations and laws.
References
Riesel, D. (2007). Environmental Enforcement: Civil and criminal. New York: Law Journal Press.
Scotts, D & Taylor, M. (2014). Government and Private Party Enforcement of Federal Environmental Laws and Regulations. Florida Environmental and Land Use Law.
Situ, Y., & Emmons, D. (2000). Environmental crime: The criminal justice system's role in protecting the environment. Thousand Oaks, Calif. [u.a.: Sage.
