Civil and criminal liability for violation of environmental laws
Over the past several years, increasing public attention has been focused on environmental pollution at facilities owned or operated by the United States Government, with particular emphasis on hazards that pollution may present to human health and the environment. In response to the concerns which are being raised, federal officials and private citizens have investigated a variety of options they have available to ensure environmental laws are being enforced and to compensate those injured by the pollution. More and more, those options have included litigation. Criminal prosecutions have been instituted against government employees, and civil suits have been filed against the government, against those who contributed to the perceived problem and against those who are endeavoring to clean up the sites. Questions have been raised about whether, and to what extent, the government should indemnify its contractors or contractors should indemnify the government. Pending legislative initiatives may address some of these problems, but potential civil and criminal liability will probably be the order of the day for the foreseeable future.
- Research Organization:
- Jones, Day, Reavis and Pogue, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 5452440
- Report Number(s):
- AD-P-008723/9/XAB
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: This article is from 'Proceedings of The Conference on Chemical Risk Assessment in the DoD: Science, Policy and Practice, Held in Dayton, OH on April 8 - 11, 1991. AD-A268 643, p173 - 186
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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