State Hazardous Waste Crimes

December 1987
Citation:
17
ELR 10465
Issue
12
Author
James M. McElfish Jr.

Editors' Summary: Criminal enforcement of hazardous waste laws is occurring with greater frequency, more serious penalties, and more corporate defendants. At the same time, states are taking widely varying approaches to their criminal hazardous waste programs, leading to substantial diversity from state to state even within a particular region of the country. In this Article, the author compiles the state hazardous waste crimes for each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia, presenting a chart showing the citations to the relevant state statutes, the conduct that is made criminal, the penalties available, and the criminal "state of mind" specified in the statute for conviction. In many cases, this "state of mind" requirement is key, since many business operations have the potential to lead to violations in their day-to-day implementation. The author compares the states' hazardous waste crimes, observing the wide disparity in the range of penalties and the degree of knowledge required in the "state of mind" requirement. Finally, the author considers whether there are any patterns among the state programs, and compares them to the comparable federal provisions in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

Mr. McElfish is a Senior Attorney at the Environmental Law Institute. The research for the table accompanying this article was conducted by Environmental Law Institute staff members in connection with a year-long study of hazardous waste enforcement in the states.

Article File