In law school, U.S. Attorney Chris Kavanaugh couldn’t decide whether to specialize in criminal or environmental law. Now, he gets to do both and says his team is ready.
“We have recognized that environmental crime and injustice touches all communities – cities, towns and rural areas, but in particular communities of color and low income communities often bear the brunt," he says. "I have a large amount of prosecutors in Charlottesville and Roanoke and Abingdon that are fit and ready to do these cases.”
Working with investigators from the EPA, Kavanaugh explains that they’ll focus on two areas.
“The first is factories or manufacturing businesses and corporations that are exposing communities to toxic air pollutants. Second of all is the introduction of wastewater into our streams and rivers.”
He adds that is a criminal offense under the Clean Water Act.
“There isn’t cause for alarm, but we have noticed this, and we have found that many people – because there has been an absence of enforcement – feel like they’ve been able to get away with it, and that’s not going to be the case any further.”
Chris Kavanaugh will rely on the EPA to investigate and report actual violations and failures to keep proper records.
“Many of these corporations and cities are required to keep specific records, and we’ve often seen that they’ve done poor record keeping or falsified their records. That’s an additional federal crime, obstruction of justice.”
The feds will also go after people who are cutting timber in national parks and forests and park rangers are on the watch for those who illegally harvest ginseng and other profitable plants.
