Cynthia Giles is the new Assistant Administrator for the USEPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance and will direct the USEPA's enforcement efforts in the Obama administration. Prior to her appointment, she served as the Vice President and Director of Conservation Law Foundation's Rhode Island Advocacy Center, where she has focused on state and regional advocacy to combat climate change. From 2001 to 2005 she was head of the Bureau of Resource Protection in Massachusetts' Department of Environmental Protection. Prior to that, Giles worked for the USEPA in a variety of capacities from 1991 to 1997 and during that time, from 1995 to 1997, she was Enforcement Director for the USEPA Region III's enforcement program. While at the USEPA, she developed a "results-targeted" approach to enforcement. Prior to joining the USEPA, she was an AUSA, prosecuting environmental crimes. In short, she brings a lot of enforcement expertise to her new appointment. Ms Giles holds a BA from Cornell University, as well as a JD from the University of California at Berkeley and an MPA from the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government. She is admitted to the bar in the State of Rhode Island, U.S. District Court for the District of Rhode Island and State of Pennsylvania.
With record budget requests for its enforcement program and a high profile initiative to revamp Clean Water Act enforcement, the USEPA's enforcement programs are a high priority.
On December 18, 2009, she participated in a teleconference with the ABA’s SEER, Environmental Enforcement and Crimes Committee to provide her thoughts and perspective on the USEPA's enforcement programs, initiatives and priorities.
Ms. Giles started her remarks by stating that the USEPA is firmly commitment to vigorous enforcement and echoed Administrator Jackson’s comments that the USEPA is back in the enforcement business in a big way. She went on to say that pollution problems under the CAA and CWA continue and the USEPA’s other focus will also include the protection of people from exposure, especially those in vulnerable communities.
Ms Giles spoke of reinvigorating enforcement and outline three specific areas where that would occur. First, under the guise of program areas, under the CWA, the USEPA’s focus will be on raw sewage issues (POTWs), animal waste (which creates 18 times the volume of human waste), and storm water run-off. Also included in this area is the continued focus on cleaning up drinking water, specifically focusing on schools and tribal lands. This would also include cleaning up local waters that matter to the community (she specifically mentioned the Chesapeake Bay). Under the CWA, she detailed an action plan that included revisiting the nation’s water quality (she stated it is not where it should be). She also allowed that the rates of non-compliance way to high – especially at smaller facilities and that the USEPA is seeing an uneven enforcement response from around the country.
Under the CAA, the USEPA was going to continue its focus in cutting toxic pollutants (surface coating industry, refineries, and coal fired power plants were mentioned). The USEPA is also planning on looking at the quality of air near schools. Finally, she stated that the USEPA would continue its focus on the clean up of CERCLA and RCRA sites and mineral processing sites, making sure that funds necessary to deal with contamination, remediation and closure were available. This may mean a review of all financial assurance submissions and in reforming chemical management processes.
Second, the USEPA is looking at resetting its relationship with states. Ms. Giles acknowledge that the states do the bulk of permitting and enforcement function. She said that the USEPA is looking for a shared accountability of the enforcement goals of the statutes with the states, working with the states to increase each states oversight and enforcement. She also acknowledged that the USEPA, in its role for responsibility of oversight of the states needed to provide clear standards for the states to follow neither a competitive disadvantage nor advantage is evident from a state to state viewpoint. The final component is increasing the transparence of the USEPA’s enforcement – i.e. making information available by using 21st century technology.
In terms of criminal enforcement, Ms. Giles stated that the USEPA is revitalizing its criminal enforcement by staffing up so that it can get to the 200 criminal investigators nation wide as mandated by Congress. She expected that the areas of enforcement would parallel the specific areas she outlined. She also stated that the USEPA has forty offices nation-wide with 800 cased currently under investigation. The USEPA is looking at bringing what she called “more high impact cases.”
Finally, she spoke of setting new national enforcement priorities. This designation is done on a three year cycle (2011 – 2013) and is based upon certain criteria, including the severity of threat, the pattern of non-compliance, and the need for national enforcement presence. A Federal Register notice will be published soon with the list of areas to be considered; however, the initial list includes climate/clean energy pollution issues (GHG reporting rules) and wetlands.
Hold on to your seats, this will be a fast-paced and potentially a wild ride for enforcement.
More later.
As always, feel free to contact me via e-mail at walter.james@jamespllc.com.
WDJiii
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