EPA at 50: Celebrating a Legacy of Enforcement and Compliance Achievements

This month, as part of its 50th anniversary commemoration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA) is highlighting the historic contributions of its programs.

“Over its 50-year history, EPA’s enforcement and compliance work has played an integral and important role in support of EPA’s mission to protect human health and the environment,” said EPA OECA Assistant Administrator Susan Bodine. “This month we celebrate and recognize the contributions of our programs by highlighting some of the many successes over the last 50 years.”

Ensuring compliance with environmental laws is a central part of EPA’s Strategic Plan to protect human health and the environment. During the month of November, EPA social media posts will highlight historic enforcement policies and cases and compliance achievements. The posts will include landmark cases of civil, criminal, Superfund, and federal facility enforcement. These cases represent important milestones in the Agency’s efforts to hold violators accountable, increase compliance with environmental regulations and clean up contaminated sites. The posts also will highlight the significant contributions of the enforcement and compliance assurance programs, including:

• Over 9,531 Superfund enforcement instruments resulting in $46.3 billion in cleanup commitments, cost recoveries and cash out settlements, since the program’s inception.
• Over 91,000 civil enforcement actions since 1972; close to $179 billion in work to protect the environment, since 1985; and more than $4.7 billion pounds of pollution reduction, treatment, or elimination, since 2012.
• Since 1985, the work of EPA’s criminal enforcement program has resulted in 5,683 defendants charged; $5,230,077,778 in criminal fines; $973,088,554 in restitution; $7,322,212,075 in court ordered environmental projects; and 2,941 years of incarceration.