Fact Sheet: Region 5 Environmental Enforcement Results, FY 2000-2007
Introduction
Over fiscal years 2000-2007, Region 5 continued to occupy a lead role in environmental
enforcement to protect human health and the environment through administrative, civil, judicial
and criminal enforcement actions against regulated entities. This report examines eight years of
enforcement activity. It evaluates trends in environmental benefits, assessed penalties, injunctive
relief and Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs). In general, injunctive relief is action
ordered by a federal District Court Judge that requires a defendant to reduce, treat, properly
manage, or prevent pollution. This relief may be ordered either as a term of an order consented
to by the parties in a lawsuit (a "Consent Decree") or after a contested trial before the Judge. The
term also includes actions taken by a respondent in an administrative case who is ordered to
reduce, treat, properly manage or prevent pollution. A SEP is defined by U.S. EPA guidance as
an environmentally beneficial project that a violator agrees to undertake in settlement of an
enforcement action, but that the violator is not otherwise legally required to perform.
Concerning both injunctive actions and actions undertaken as part of SEPs, some of these actions
may not have yet been completed for FY 2000 to 2007 cases. This report presents information
gathered from the United States Environmental Protection Agency's Integrated Compliance
Information System (ICIS) and other program-specific databases.
Environmental Benefits
In order to protect human health and the environment, Region 5 continues to achieve
environmental benefits, including pollution reduction, prevention, or elimination through the
resolution of enforcement matters. EPA Region 5's enforcement activities in fiscal years 2003
through 2007 resulted in legal commitments by companies, governments and other regulated
entities to reduce, treat, properly manage, or prevent more than 1.2 billion pounds of pollution.
See Table 1. These resolutions also required commitments to provide clean drinking water to
60,188 people and to cleanup over 13 million cubic yards of contaminated soil. See Table 1.
Through these settlements Region 5 is helping to ensure that the air we breathe is cleaner, the
water we drink is safer, and contaminated land is remediated. To achieve these pollutant
reductions, regulated entities have committed to spend over $7 billion dollars to correct
violations, restore the environment, and prevent future harm to human health and the
environment.

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Estimates of Environmental Benefits from Region 5 Enforcement Actions
Categories
FY 03
FY 04
FY 05
FY 06
FY 07
Total
Estimated Pollutants
Reduced or Treated
(lbs)
97,176,990
99,177,966
584,417,618
145,358,476
297,007,137
1,223,138,187
Estimated
Contaminated Soil to
be Cleaned Up (cubic
yards)
6,257,222
1,314,287
3,399,349
535,385
1,860,736
13,366,979
Estimated
Contaminated Water to
be Cleaned Up (cubic
yards)
NC
4,497
9,344,682
23,006,569
55,512,959
87,868,707
Linear Feet of Stream
Miles Mitigated (feet)
NC
7,200
2,185
5,740
6,154
21,279
Wetlands
Protected/Mitigated
(acres)
170
27
206
2,368
167
2,938
People Receiving
Cleaner Drinking
Water
9,713
3,989
29,202
3,579
13,705
60,188
Table 1: Environmental Benefits in pollution reduction amounts (lbs.), contaminated soil clean up (cubic yards),
linear feet of stream miles mitigated, wetlands protected (acres), and the number of people receiving cleaner
drinking water required by enforcement case resolutions in fiscal years 2003-2007. "NC" stands for not calculated.
*The enviromnental benefits from fiscal years 2000-2002 were not calculated.
Injunctive Relief and Supplemental Environmental Projects (SEPs)
EPA's approach in all enforcement actions is to seek appropriate injunctive relief to return
violators to compliance, and to address the root causes of noncompliance, so as to eliminate the
potential for repeat violations. Injunctive relief represents the actions a regulated entity is
ordered to undertake to achieve and maintain compliance. These actions may include: installing
a new pollution control device; preventing pollution; instituting site remediation; restoring a
wetland; instituting new maintenance measures; and requiring monitoring, auditing or
recordkeeping.

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A Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP), on the other hand, is a condition of settlement that
requires actions, which an entity agrees to undertake, to protect human health and the
environment, beyond what is required for compliance with environmental laws. SEPs usually
fall within one of the following categories: public health, pollution prevention, pollution
reduction, environmental restoration and protection, assessments and audits, environmental
compliance promotion or emergency planning and preparedness. A SEP may be in lieu of or in
mitigation of a portion of the monetary penalty.
During fiscal years 2000-2007, U.S. EPA Region 5 resolved 2,262 enforcement cases requiring
the expenditure of more than $9 billion in injunctive relief. See Figures 1 and 2. In settlement of
318 of these cases, Region 5 negotiated SEPs valued at more than 110 million dollars. See
Figures 1 and 3. The number of SEPs from FY 2000 to FY 2007 is fairly constant and does not
indicate any particular trend. See Figure 1. The dollar value of these SEP cases, however,
declined over this period. See Figure 3. In contrast, both the number of injunctive relief cases
and the dollar value of those cases from FY 2000 to FY 2007 increased over this period. See
Figures 1 and 2.
Figure 1: Number of Region 5 Injunctive Relief and SEP Cases, FY 2000 - FY 2007
Injunctive Relief
100 -
50 -
FY 03	FY 04
Fiscal Year
Total Injunctive Relief cases= 2,262
Total SEPs= 318

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Figure 2: Dollar Value of Region 5 Injunctive Relief Cases, FY 2000 - FY 2007
$3,000,000,000
$2,673,728,336
FY 00
FY 01
FY 02
FY 03
FY 04
FY 05
FY 06
FY 07
Fiscal Year
Total: $9,358,679,644
Penalties
During fiscal years 2000-2007, Region 5 resolved hundreds of cases brought under each of the
following eight federal environmental statutes: Clean Air Act (CAA); Clean Water Act (CWA);
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA);
Emergency Planning & Right to Know Act (EPCRA); Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and
Rodenticide Act (FIFRA); Resource Conservation & Recovery Act (RCRA); Safe Drinking
Water Act (SDWA); and Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA). These resolutions have assessed
over $83 million in civil and administrative penalties. Of the total dollars in assessed penalties, a
majority of the penalties, 54%, were assessed under the Clean Air Act (CAA). RCRA cases and
CWA enforcement cases generate the second and third largest percentages of the total, at 15%
and 13% respectively. See Figure 4. Assessed penalties serve two very important functions: 1)
as a deterrent to future violations of the environmental laws and 2) as a means to recoup the
economic benefit the violator has gained as a result of a violation. As a result of these penalties,
the playing field is leveled between complying and violating competitors.

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(i O %
I ®il
PW0^/ $30,000,000
Figure 3: Dollar Value of Region 5 SEP Cases, FY 2000 - FY 2007
$25,000,000 - $24,394,624
$20,000,000
$15,000,000
$10,000,000
$5,000,000
$23,009,465
$18,578,750
$11,798,233 $11,790,997
$6,832,8
D
Fiscal Year
567
$1,738,225
FY 00	FY 01	FY 02	FY 03	FY 04	FY 05	FY 06	FY 07
Total: $110,067,661
Figure 4: Dollar Amount of Penalties per Statute, for Region 5 Enforcement Cases,
FYs 2000 - 2007 (cumulative)
RCRA
$12,450,451
15%
FIFRA
$3,153,249
4%
EPCRA
$4,782,554 ^
6%
CWA
$10,912,476
13%
SDWA
$572,717
CERCLA
2.247.119
3%
TSCA
$3,441,165
4%
CAA
$46,286,528
54%
~	CAA
¦	CERCLA
~	CWA
~	EPCRA
¦	FIFRA
~	RCRA
¦	SDWA
~	TSCA
Cumulative Penalties = $83,846,259

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