Oregon Attorney General John Kroger has assembled a new bureau, the Environmental Crimes Enforcement Unit. This bureau will meet each week with Oregon Department of Environmental Quality in order to determine who will be charged with environmental crimes.
Rather than facing civil penalties, as has been the case in the past, those charged by the agencies will face criminal prosecution.
All individuals falling into one (or more) of the following three categories are therefore subject to prosecution, regardless of their business’s size:
Those who are responsible for releases that cause potential public health risks;
Repeat violators, no matter the severity of the violations; and
Those who commit intentional or egregious violations of environmental laws.
In other words, a small-scale violation that may have previously resulted in only a civil penalty may now result in criminal prosecution.
