EPA Has Slashed Its Criminal Investigation Division in Half

The Environmental Protection Agency employs about half as many criminal investigators as it did a more than a decade ago, according to newly released documents, corresponding to a dramatic dropoff in the number of new criminal cases against those who violate environmental laws and regulations.
EPA currently has 147 special agents in its Criminal Investigation Division, according to documents obtained through a federal records request by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, less than half the number it employed in 2003 and well below the 200-agent floor established by Congress in 1990. The division opened 170 new cases in fiscal 2016, down 47 percent from fiscal 2012. It is on pace to open just 120 cases this fiscal year. Actual convictions have dropped at a similar rate. The reduction in agents exceeds the workforce declines at EPA agencywide over the last several years. EPA has shed more than 2,500 employees, or about 14 percent of its workforce, since 2010. The agents in the criminal division are white collar workers, generally with backgrounds as attorneys or accountants...more