Environmental Enforcement removes deceased dogs, cats, coyotes, deer and wild game from County rights of way and requests pet owners to be responsible for the removal of their deceased pets or livestock from the rights of way. The litter crew uses the mechanical Litter Picker to maintain more than 1, miles of County rights of way. Ordinances and Laws Mobile County Junk Control Ordinance Mobile County Process and Procedure Ordinance Section 13 A Criminal Littering Education and Community Involvement Environmental Enforcement works with schools and community action groups to bring awareness to the health and environmental concerns associated with illegal littering on the County rights of ways, waterways and the accumulation of litter on private properties.
Pytte, A. Rapoport, A. Reinganum, J. Rubinstein, A. Russell, C. Portney ed. Scholz, J. Simpson, R. Srinivasan, T. Stigler, G. Straffin, P. Suzuki, M. Tsebelis, G. Vaughan, W. Viscusi, W. Von Neumann, J. Wathern, P. Wittman, D. Woltemade, C. Young, H. Young ed. Liping Fang 1 2 Keith W. As a result of this distinction, most of the environmental crimes that EPA investigates involve "knowing violations" of the law. These are classified as felonies in all the federal environmental statutes except for the toxic substances and pesticide statutes.
In a "knowing violation" the person or company is aware of the facts that create the violation. A conscious and informed action brought about the violation. In contrast, a civil violation may be caused by an accident or mistake.
To be found civilly liable for violating environmental laws the standard of proof is based upon "the preponderance of the evidence. Effectively, the standard is satisfied if there is a greater than 50 percent chance that the evidence is true.
The defendant in a civil suit can either be found liable, following a trial, or reach a mutually agreed-upon settlement with the government. The defendant is then required to meet all of the terms of the settlement, but does not have to acknowledge that he violated the law. Criminal guilt must be established "beyond a reasonable doubt. Yet environmental enforcement has seldom been held up to the same scrutiny as other government enforcement programs. The numbers of cases filed, penalties collected, and years of imprisonment obtained are largely irrelevant to measuring the success of the environmental enforcement program.
One would think, from the fact that these figures climb year by year, that American businesses are becoming increasingly lawless and disdainful of environmental protection.
Yet the opposite is actually true. Year by year, American businesses improve their environmental record and spend more on environmental protection than in any previous year. What these statistics prove is that the environmental enforcement program is pushing the margins of judicial deference, regulatory interpretation, and strict liability, to achieve essentially meaningless results of greater penalties and more convictions.
Environmental enforcement is responding to the first principle of any government bureaucracy: bigger budgets and more employees. New measures of success must be found.
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