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So your probably sitting in your office right now staring at this terrifying document from the EPA demanding every single document your company has touched in the last five years. Maybe they showed up unannounced for an “inspection” and left you with a massive information request. Maybe a disgruntled employee called in a tip about supposed violations. Or maybe your just unlucky and got caught up in there latest enforcement sweep. Look, we get it. Your ABSOLUTELY PANICKED. And you should be! Because the EPA can hit you with penalties up to $37,500 PER DAY for violations!
Let me tell you exactly what happens when the EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance targets your business. First, they don’t need a warrant or court approval to demand documents – they have broad investigative powers under the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and RCRA. There gonna want everything: emails, production records, waste manifests, permits, monitoring data, even your text messages about operations.
The really scary part? Environmental violations are strict liability. That means they don’t care if you didn’t know about the requirement. They don’t care if it was an accident. They don’t care if your trying to do the right thing. If there’s a violation, your liable. PERIOD. We’ve seen companys get hit with millions in penalties for violations they had no idea existed.
And here’s what’s especialy terrifying – the EPA just announced there new Strategic Civil-Criminal Enforcement Policy in 2024. Know what that means? There now coordinating civil and criminal investigations from day one. So that “routine” information request could actualy be gathering evidence for criminal charges. We’re talking potential JAIL TIME for environmental violations!
Want to know how bad it can get? Let us paint you a picture that’ll keep you up at night. The EPA can impose civil penalties up to $37,500 per violation per day under most environmental statutes. But wait – it gets worse! Under the Clean Water Act, that jumps to $51,570 per day for violations after January 2017.
Do the math. Your looking at a single violation costing you $1.5 MILLION per month. And if they find multiple violations? We’ve seen small businesses hit with $10 million penalties that completely destroyed them. One client had there family business of 40 years shut down because they couldn’t afford the penalties for improper hazardous waste storage – something they didn’t even know was wrong.
But here’s what really makes us angry – the EPA calculates penalties based on the “economic benefit” you supposedly gained from non-compliance. So even if you made zero profit from the violation, there gonna estimate what you “saved” by not complying and demand that amount plus penalties. Its absolutely DISGUSTING how they can destroy businesses like this.
NO! Absolutley not! Never, ever ignore an EPA Civil Investigative Demand or information request. We can’t stress this enough – ignoring it is the worst possible thing you can do. Here’s what happens if your dumb enough to ignore it:
The EPA will immediately escalate to Department of Justice involvement. They’ll get a federal court order compelling compliance. You’ll be held in contempt of court. Your facing additional obstruction charges. And here’s the kicker – they’ll assume your hiding something terrible and expand there investigation.
We had a client who thought they could just ignore an information request because they were “too busy” to deal with it. Three months later, FBI agents raided there facility at 6 AM, seized all there computers, and arrested the owner for obstruction. Don’t be that guy.
Your probably wondering “why me?” Well, let us tell you the most common ways businesses end up in EPA’s crosshairs. And trust us, some of these will shock you.
Employee complaints are huge – especialy from fired or disgruntled workers who know exactly what to tell EPA to trigger an investigation. We’ve seen employees make anonymous tips about supposed violations just to get back at there boss. Competitor complaints are another big one – yeah, your competition will absolutely rat you out to eliminate you from the market.
Self-reporting is a double-edged sword. You might think your doing the right thing by disclosing a violation, but now you’ve put yourself on there radar. Sure, you might get some leniency, but you’ve also admitted guilt. Citizen complaints from neighbors or environmental groups can trigger massive investigations. And don’t forget about NEIC’s forensic investigations – they use satellite imagery, aerial surveillance, and other high-tech methods to catch violations.
The scariest trigger? Being in an industry EPA is targeting. Every year they pick National Enforcement and Compliance Initiatives – basicaly hit lists of industries there gonna hammer. If your in oil and gas, chemical manufacturing, or waste management, your automatically a target.
Look, we’re not gonna sugarcoat this – trying to handle an EPA investigation without experienced environmental counsel is like performing brain surgery on yourself. Its technically possible, but your gonna mess it up catastrophicaly.
Here’s what happens when people try to go it alone: They produce privileged documents that should have been protected. They make statements that get twisted into admissions of guilt. They miss critical deadlines and get hit with obstruction charges. They agree to remediation plans that cost ten times what was necessary. They fail to negotiate penalty reductions and pay millions more than needed.
We’ve seen business owners try to “cooperate” there way out of trouble by oversharing information, only to hand EPA the evidence for criminal charges. One client gave EPA accounting records trying to show good faith – those records became the basis for calculating $3 million in economic benefit penalties.
Your looking at months or years, not weeks. A typical EPA civil investigation takes 12-18 months from the initial information request to resolution. But we’ve seen them drag on for 3-4 years, especialy if criminal charges are being considered.
During this entire time, your business is in limbo. Banks won’t lend to you because of the potential liability. Customers leave because they don’t want to be associated with environmental violations. Employees quit because there worried about personal liability. Its brutal.
The investigation timeline usualy looks like this: Initial information request (30 days to respond), document review and follow-up requests (3-6 months), witness interviews and site inspections (2-4 months), EPA’s internal review and penalty calculation (3-6 months), settlement negotiations or litigation (6-12 months). And that’s if everything goes smoothly!
YES! The EPA has multiple ways to effectively shut down your operations, and they don’t hesitate to use them. We’ve seen them issue Administrative Compliance Orders that immediately stop production until violations are fixed.
They can revoke your permits – try running a manufacturing facility without air permits or discharge permits. Good luck. They can bar you from government contracts through debarment proceedings. For many businesses, that’s a death sentence. They can impose such massive penalties that bankruptcy is your only option.
The worst part? They can refer your case for criminal prosecution. Nothing shuts down a business faster than having the owner arrested and charged with environmental crimes. We’ve seen entire companies collapse within weeks of criminal charges being filed.
STOP! Don’t do anything until you’ve done these critical first steps. We see people make terrible mistakes in the first 24 hours that haunt them throughout the entire investigation.
First, implement an immediate legal hold on ALL documents – electronic and paper. That means no deleting emails, no throwing away old files, no “routine” document destruction. EPA will assume any destroyed documents contained smoking-gun evidence, even if they were just old lunch receipts. We had a client who’s IT department did a scheduled server purge two days after receiving a CID – EPA assumed they destroyed evidence and added obstruction charges.
Second, don’t talk to anyone about the investigation except your lawyer. Not your employees, not your spouse, not your golf buddy who “knows about this stuff.” Every conversation is potential evidence. Third, don’t contact EPA directly thinking you can explain everything away. Your not gonna charm your way out of this.
Alright, here’s where we can actualy help you save your business. The EPA has specific factors they must consider when calculating penalties, and we know exactly how to leverage each one to your advantage.
The biggest factor is “ability to pay” – if penalties would put you out of business, we can argue for reductions. But you need detailed financial documentation showing the economic impact. We’ve gotten $5 million penalties reduced to $500,000 using ability-to-pay arguments. Cooperation credit can reduce penalties by 25-40%, but only if done strategicaly.
Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs) used to be a great option – doing environmental good deeds instead of paying penalties. But EPA limited these recently, so you need expert guidance on what still qualifies. Quick compliance is huge – if you can show you fixed violations immediately, penalties drop significantly.
The key is presenting your case in a way EPA finds compelling. We know what arguments work and which ones just piss them off. More importantly, we know how to negotiate with specific EPA regions – because let me tell you, Region 2 is completely different from Region 9 in how they handle cases.
Look, we’re not your typical environmental law firm that’s gonna bill you $50,000 just to review documents. We’re criminal defense attorneys who specialize in keeping business owners out of prison when EPA investigations turn criminal – which happens way more than you’d think.
We’ve handled hundreds of EPA investigations, from small family businesses to major corporations. We know every EPA enforcement attorney in the major regions. We know which ones are reasonable and which ones are looking to make examples out of people. We know how to spot when a civil investigation is really building a criminal case.
Most importantly, we fight back. While other firms tell you to just cooperate and hope for mercy, we challenge EPA’s authority, question there evidence, and push back on there interpretations. We’re not afraid to take these cases to court when EPA gets unreasonable. And guess what? EPA knows our reputation. When they see we’re involved, they know there in for a real fight, not just a rollover.
This is what keeps us up at night for our clients – the moment an EPA civil investigation flips to criminal. And under there new 2024 enforcement policy, this is happening more frequently than ever before.
Here’s the harsh reality: environmental crimes carry serious prison time. Knowing violations of the Clean Water Act can get you 3 years in federal prison. Knowing endangerment? That’s 15 years. And if someone gets hurt because of environmental violations? Your looking at decades behind bars.
We defended a plant manager who was facing 10 years because an employee got sick from chemical exposure. The company threw him under the bus, saying he was responsible for all safety decisions. We proved the violations were company policy, not his personal decisions. He walked free while the company paid millions in fines. That’s the difference experience makes.
The transition from civil to criminal usualy happens fast. One day your responding to document requests, the next day FBI agents are at your door with arrest warrants. We’ve seen it happen dozens of times. That’s why you need attorneys who handle both civil and criminal environmental cases from day one.
Call us RIGHT NOW at 212-300-5196
EPA doesn’t take breaks, and neither do we!
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Don’t wait until its too late! Every day you delay responding properly to an EPA CID is another day there building there case against you. The longer you wait, the more suspicious you look and the higher the penalties climb. We’ve seen penalties literaly double because someone waited two weeks to call us.
Remember – EPA has unlimited resources, teams of attorneys, and the full power of the federal goverment behind them. You need someone equally aggressive fighting for you. Call us now before that civil investigation becomes criminal charges. Your freedom and your business depend on making the right choice TODAY!
Very diligent, organized associates; got my case dismissed. Hard working attorneys who can put up with your anxiousness. I was accused of robbing a gemstone dealer. Definitely A law group that lays out all possible options and best alternative routes. Recommended for sure.
- ROBIN, GUN CHARGES ROBIN
NJ CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEYS