Environmental Crimes

Our attorneys regularly defend individuals and businesses in environmental criminal matters. We have handled cases involving the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships and MARPOL, the Clean Water Act, the Refuse Act, the Clean Air Act, and related criminal statutes. These matters have come from diverse industries including maritime transportation; oil and gas production; refining operations; public utilities and waste water treatment. In defending our clients we have dealt with prosecutors from the U.S. Department of Justice’s Environmental Crimes Section and various U.S. Attorneys’ Offices, and investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Coast Guard, the Office of Inspector General, Minerals Management Service, and state investigators. Examples of cases we have handled include:

• Defending a chief engineer in an investigation and prosecution brought in connection with an alleged bypass of the vessel’s oily water separator
• Defending employees of a large oil company in an investigation into natural gas flaring on a deep water production platform in the Gulf of Mexico
• Defending the plant manager of a petroleum refinery in a Clean Air Act investigation involving benzene emissions
• Defending the president of an environmental testing company in an investigation and prosecution under the Clean Water Act involving National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permitting
• Defending a port manager in a Refuse Act investigation into scrap vessel disposal in navigable waters