When May You Be Punished or Found Guilty of an Environmental Offense?
The following situations can result in fines or convictions for environmental violations:
- Whenever you release a harmful substance in a prohibited amount that endangers people, property, or the environment into the air, water, or soil
- If the pollution or other environmental violation was committed willfully, unintentionally, negligently, or with knowledge
Because of the 5-year statute of limitations, the government cannot pursue legal action against you for these violations if they occurred more than five years ago.
What Occurs When the Environment Is Contaminated?
Three general liability areas result from environmental pollution:
Any of these commitments may be the responsibility of the business or other entity that causes the environmental damage.
What Are the Costs of Removals?
Businesses, individuals, and federal, state, and tribal governments all have to pay removal fees to get environmental contaminants out of the environment. These costs may differ significantly depending on the extent of the damage, the type of contamination, and the severity of the harm.
For instance, the cost of cleaning up after a shipwreck that spills crude oil will likely be high, in contrast to the low cost of cleaning up after a vehicle that spills gasoline.
How Do Damages Affect You?
Damages in the context of environmental pollution refer to how the contamination affects the value of the property. These could include:
- Environmental damage
- Financial hardship for landowners
- Less natural resources being used
- Reduction in land taxes overall
- Lost money
- Price increases for public services
- Costs associated with health effects and relevant research
- Penalties
How Are Punitive Damages Calculated?
Punitive damages are extra costs a judge or jury imposes to punish a business or individual for polluting the environment. They could be far higher than the initial damages award.
Who Is Liable for Environmental Pollution Caused by Businesses?
According to federal regulations, several parties may be jointly liable for cleaning up environmental damage, such as a chemical spill:
- The person in control of a facility or vessel at the time
- The owner or operator of a vessel or facility
- Any carrier of hazardous materials to the location of their choice
Can Some Parties Contract Out of Their Obligations?
Although it is possible to reach agreements on fault, a contract cannot entirely exonerate a party from liability.
To put it another way, accountability should be shared so that each party contributes to cleaning costs while ensuring that no party is completely exempt from accountability due to a contract. If contamination is later discovered, culpability could be applied in the past.
How Can a Third-Party Act Be Established?
This justification will incredibly rarely be accepted. Innocent landowners are to be protected by this, but only if they thoroughly investigated the property and had no reason to believe that it included any dangerous chemicals.
Statutes May Create Additional Causes of Action
In addition to these traditional types of civil litigation, additional environmental legislation may potentially provide some persons new rights and, in the event those rights are violated, new grounds for action.
When a business manages the hazardous waste in a way that endangers both human health and the environment, people may pursue lawsuits for injunctive remedies under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), for example.
Another example is the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), which allows those who incur costs for cleaning up environmental contamination to sue the responsible parties for payment.
Can I File a Lawsuit for Environmental Harm?
Civil law remedies have been used successfully to address various environmental issues. The four traditional types of environmental legal claims are trespass, nuisance, carelessness, and strict liability.
Trespassing
Physically invading another person’s property without their consent and interfering with their right to exclusive ownership constitutes trespassing. Object invasion is not always a component of trespass allegations, but it occasionally is. Courts have held defendants liable for trespass when they permit dangerous materials like ash, sewage, or trash to enter the property of others.
Legal redress for environmental trespass may include an injunction to stop the trespass from continuing and, if appropriate, monetary damages for the decrease in the property’s market value or to cover repair costs.
Nuisance
The use of property in an unfair manner that prevents others from enjoying their own property is referred to as a “nuisance.” Examples include unpleasant odors, startling noises, smoke, dust, and tremors.
Trespassing just needs one piece of property, whereas a nuisance needs at least two.
Furthermore, unlike trespass, nuisance does not require a physical intrusion; rather, it only requires that the nuisance interferes with the enjoyment of others.
A common remedy for a nuisance is an injunction. Before the defendant can use their land again, he must alter his behavior to stop harming other property owners. Rarely have courts opted to forgo the injunctive remedy in favor of granting damages that adequately make up for the economic losses caused by the nuisance.
If stopping environmental harm is the primary goal of the litigation, an injunction is a better remedy. An injunction is used to compel the defendant to use his property in a less harmful way.
In essence, a damages award authorizes the defendant to compensate the plaintiff while harming the environment.
Negligence
The use of carelessness as a legal claim can be used to recover damages for a wide variety of personal and property injuries. Failure to make reasonable efforts to lessen foreseeable hazards to others is referred to as negligence.
Holding someone liable when their carelessness causes property damage or monetary loss is acceptable. In environmental carelessness cases, the defendant usually unwittingly introduces chemicals into the environment.
In contrast to trespass and annoyance, which need some level of knowledge or intent on the part of the defendant, a negligence case is available for unintentional harm, provided the harm was foreseeable, and the defendant acted negligently.
Additionally, crimes against property and personal injury are both included in negligence. A negligence claim need not involve a specific piece of property.
Environmental laws could also be important in negligence trials. If the defendant’s acts violated a law, rule, or regulation intended to prevent the type of injury the defendant eventually produced, the plaintiff wouldn’t need to present any more evidence to prove that the defendant failed to exercise due care. This is considered pure negligence.
The appropriate legal reaction to negligence is damages. Damages may be used to compensate for losses in property value, clean-up costs, or personal injury.
Getting Legal Aid
At the local, state, and federal levels, environmental rules cover a wide range of legal issues. A government lawyer can assist you if you have issues with environmental restrictions affecting you or your company.
