edited by blazinaU.S. Attorney David Hickton is assessing how environmental laws are enforced in southwestern Pennsylvania, a review that may lead him to expand the focus and resources his office devotes to environmental crimes.

Mr. Hickton said he began meeting in December with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the state Department of Environmental Protection and state attorney general to discuss opportunities for improved environmental enforcement. Another meeting is scheduled for next week.

“It’s not a cake yet, but we’re challenging our people to take a renewed look at environmental enforcement and advise if we need more attention, if we need to go in a different direction,” Mr. Hickton said in an interview last week in his federal courthouse office Downtown. “I’m looking at this closely, and I take seriously the responsibility to do good environmental work as part of this job.”

Mr. Hickton, who previously has reorganized and refocused his office’s civil rights, cyber crime, fraud and health care operations, said a review of its work on environmental crime issues is a logical and necessary next step.  He said he expects to receive recommendations “in a matter of weeks,” and then chart a new enforcement strategy. He said it’s too soon to say if additional manpower will be needed.

“We’re in the middle of a critical assessment,” Mr. Hickton said, “and will be deciding whether we should increase resources, and our focus, in areas we’ve not been focused on before.”

Although Mr. Hickton said the environmental initiative wasn’t keyed to the active energy development work in the Marcellus and Utica shales, he used examples — including the illegal dumping of wastewater, groundwater contamination and problems with wastewater impoundment construction — indicating that the shale gas development operations would likely be one focus.

He also said he has met with pro- and anti-gas development interests during the past few years to get a better understanding of the issues. He said much of the work will involve enforcement of the federal Clean Air and Clean Water acts.

“It’s a false choice between clean air and water, and Marcellus Shale development and a robust manufacturing sector. We can have both,” he said. “There’s a way to do it right.

”Environmental enforcement is the right thing to do for people and future generations, as well as the right thing to do for law abiding companies that are doing energy exploration the right way, that play by the rules.”

Mr. Hickton said the initiative to review environmental crime enforcement was his own and was not directed by the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. That said, he cited as models the work done on federal energy and environmental crime prosecutions in New Jersey, the Dakotas, Oklahoma and western Arkansas.

He also noted that his office already has an active environmental enforcement record in a number of cases, including consent decrees to limit air pollution from a coal-burning power plant in Homer City and to reduce sewage overflows into western Pennsylvania rivers and creeks. 

“It’s national policy and a priority to protect the environment. My charge is to assess the national policy and apply it to Western Pennsylvania,“ Mr. Hickton said. “I relish the opportunity to jump-start our renewed efforts in this area. If the public sees things, we want them to contact us.”

First Published: May 2, 2015, 4:00 a.m.