Penalties against polluters drop sharply

WASHINGTON — Numbers released by the Trump administration show an 80 percent drop in some penalties levied against polluters, the latest sign that the Environmental Protection Agency has become a less aggressive watchdog.

Injunctive relief — the amount of money polluters commit to pay to correct problems and prevent them from recurring — fell from $20.6 billion in fiscal 2017 to $3.95 billion in fiscal 2018. That is a 15-year low for the agency.

Civil penalties in 2018 declined to $69 million. That was far less than the $1.68 billion in penalties imposed 2017, but that year’s figure includes by fines negotiated by the Obama administration.

Volkswagen agreed in 2016 to a $1.45 billion penalty as punishment for its diesel emissions scandal.

In releasing the figures last week, EPA officials said they were focused in 2018 on ensuring that facilities were in compliance, and expediting site cleanup.

The EPA’s data span fiscal year 2018, which ended Sept. 30. For the most part, the figures reflect enforcement activity — cases settled, fines assessed — under the Trump administration.

Civil penalties are at their lowest since 1994, when the enforcement office was created, said Cynthia Giles, assistant administrator for the EPA’s enforcement office in the Obama administration.

“Not only are the Trump EPA’s enforcement numbers at historic lows, they are on track to get worse,” Giles said.

Last month, the Department of Justice released numbers showing that the EPA had hit a 30-year low in 2018 in the number of pollution cases it referred for criminal prosecution.