California EPA Abusive and Fraudulent Practices

Since 1995, the California Environmental Protection Agency (Cal/EPA) “has been encouraging the creation and support of local and regional task forces dedicated to the deterrence, detection, investigation and prosecution of environmental violations.” Now called the “Unified Policy on Participation in and Cooperation with Local and Regional Environmental Enforcement Task Forces” (Unified Enforcement Policies for short), this program is currently headed by Gerald G. Johnston, Deputy Secretary for Law Enforcement and Counsel for Cal/EPA.

These special task forces can consist of federal, state, and local prosecutors and federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, including the local sheriff, the California Highway Patrol (CHP), and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). You can read more about the California EPA Unified Enforcement Policies where you will find a list of all of the local county representatives that are being coordinated by Cal/EPA. Among others, you will find Deputy DA David Irey listed.

Cal/EPA Unified Enforcement Policies

One item central to the Womack case is this document; the Cal/EPA’s manual on enforcement of the state’s environmental regulations and laws. It describes the procedures and tactics used by the agency and by local enforcement agencies to convince citizens and businesses to comply with the rules. Some of the text describes things that can easily be viewed as pure intimidation, while others are designed to spread propaganda. For example:

• The Policy on Environmental Educational Scholarships states that “portions of settlement monies collected in enforcement actions” are to be “set aside to fund college scholarships for high school students impacted by violations of California’s environmental laws.”
  
  Furthermore, the guidelines for selecting the recipients specify that the student “Must have demonstrated a serious interest or commitment to environmental issues during the course of his/her high school education.” and “Emphasis shall be placed on demonstrated interest in environmental issues, rather than grade point average alone.”
  
  You can call (916) 327-2064 if you have any questions about how much money has been used for these scholarships so far.
• Section 2, Participation in and Cooperation with Local and Regional Environmental Enforcement Task Forces, shows that this is a state-wide effort, with the full cooperation of the Federal Government, via the U.S. Attorneys. Some of the key contacts listed on that page appear to be so apprehensive about the way these task forces operate that they have denied even knowing about the manual, despite their names, addresses, and phone numbers appearing in it.
• Also, read Section 7, Policy on Search Warrant Protocols., which includes specific directions to seize any “documents that appear to be protected by an attorney-client privilege”, rather than leave them alone.

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An interesting note: Gerald G. Johnston was appointed to the Secretary position by then-governor Pete Wilson on May 5, 1995. It was also Pete Wilson who created Cal/EPA.

This page was last modified on Monday, 11-Oct-2004 19:06:17 PDT.

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