What Corporate Environmental Managers Should Know About Criminal Enforcement of Environmental Laws

What Corporate Environmental Managers Should Know About Criminal Enforcement of Environmental Laws 
Keith M. Casto – Hoge, Fenton, Jones & Appel, Inc. (SSA Journal Volume 4 Number 1 – February 1990 pp. 44 – 50 )

The semiconductor industry in the U.S. has been relatively immune from prosecution under environmental laws because of the clean image it has enjoyed since World Ware II. However, the discovery of Superfund sites in Silicon Valley related to electronics firms and recent attempts to promulgate specific toxic gas legislation for the industry have given the semiconductor industry a higher profile in the environmental regulatory community. Therefore, environmental managers in the industry must be more sensitive to regulatory compliance than ever before. The purpose of this article is to acquaint the reader with the recent trend at all levels of government to use criminal sanctions against not only corporations, but also corporate individuals for violations of environmental regularity requirements. The article makes specific suggestions as how to avoid personal and corporate criminal liability and how to respond to a criminal investigation by federal, state or local governmental authorities.