EPA's most-wanted fugitives

The EPA's most-wanted fugitive list is filled with people who smuggled ozone-depleters, dumped toxins into the water supply, and committed other criminal acts of despoilment (The EPA notes: "Do not attempt to apprehend any of these individuals"). Alas, there are no senior execs from Fortune 100 chemical companies who dump millions of gallons of petroleum into the ocean, or sell carcinogenic pesticides, or manufacture cars that get 0.5 miles to the gallon.

EPA Fugitives (via Beyond the Beyond)

• [jphilby]

  Seattle TV ran a story about a guy that was re-cycling logs in rivers and lakes. The state agencies got all in an uproar about this guy pulling deadheads out of the water and off the bottom without a permit.

  Meanwhile, I don’t suppose any of the giant lumber & paper tree-harvesting companies ever skirt any of the laws. Oh no.

• [Ratdog]

  I was about to respond to gadgets123, but MDH pretty much summed up what I was about to write.

  You do have some valuable points to your argument, finding ways to stop exposure to malaria is highly important. But we can not use chemicals that can cause harm to the environment. We clearly depend on it more then it depends on us, and destruction of it could cause catastrophic results. Besides, it is shown these pesticides do more harm then good, and never fully solve the problem.

• [Ratdog]

  Being halfway through Silent Spring by Rachel Carson , I am extremely ticked off that the companies that sell carcinogenic pesticides are getting away.

• [evawes]

  Thats because people want to buy cars, and there are people to buy those pesticides. Its just an economy for fucks sake, have some perspective please cory. These guys wouldnt be polluting if they didnt have the incentive to do by everyone buying their stuff, directly or indirectly.

  Lets keep it in perspective.

• [zuzu]

  Missing from the list: “Doctor” Peter Venkman, and his associates, Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler.

  WIN!

  “Back off, man. I’m a scientist.”

• [dainel]

  Many of these people are very small fries. Are they really the “most wanted”, or just “a random selection of wanted people”.

  The last guy at the bottom, it says Wang discharged fuel from his tanker truck. This discharge of fuel went directly to Little Beaver Creek in Kettering, Ohio. I don’t understand why he’s throwing away fuel. I know the price of oil is not as high as last year, but normally, people sell and buy it.

• [userw014]

  Most of these people are from California, Florida, and New York. One each from Texas, Illinois, and Indiana.

  These are people who have fled from prosecution and managed to evade capture – at least for a while before being captured or surrendering. This is not necessarily a representative list of creeps by state.

  So, why is CA, NY, and FL so well represented?
  

  • (1) Is it easier to flee internationally from those states?
  • (2) Is the quality of investigation and prosecution better in those states?
  • (3) Are people in other states less venal?
  • (4) Are malefactors in other states just dumber and less capable of evasion?
  • (5) Or is it just something in the water?

  (1) could just be a matter of availability of international flights. (2) suggests mismanagement on the part of state and federal environmental offices. (3) is just plain unlikely. (4) is a back-handed indictment of state educational opportunities. And (5) suggests that the most polluted places have caused brain damage leading to (1) through (4)…

• [Machineintheghost]

  Missing from the list: “Doctor” Peter Venkman, and his associates, Ray Stantz and Egon Spengler.

• [GabrielF]

  UserW014

  My guess is that these states have higher proportions of immigrants. This isn’t to suggest that immigrants commit more of these crimes – although its possible that someone from Syria or China is less likely to understand Federal environmental regulations or take them seriously since they come from a country that doesn’t take them seriously. However, it is easier for immigrants to flee to their country of origin and blend in.

• [Capissen]

  This is clearly a job for Captain Planet. He’s our powers magnified…

• [mdh]

  gadgets123, DDT is an effictive eco-cide.

  What’s dangerous about it is people with anthropocentric worldviews (like yours) getting their hands on it.

  See, I live in the town where Ms. Carson wrote the book. And in my 35 years here (including extensive time spent playing in the woods as a youth) I had not ever seen a fox, badger, or eagle here until the last couple years.

  This ecosystem was entirely unbalanced by the application of ecocide by people like you. Maybe it can be used responsibly, but your ad-hominem argument there is not the least bit convincing.

• [Anonymous]

  >Alas, there are no senior execs from Fortune 100 chemical companies who dump millions of gallons of petroleum into the ocean, or sell carcinogenic pesticides, or manufacture cars that get 0.5 miles to the gallon.

  That’s because those things are team efforts :).

• [stonebanks]

  Szypulski, the guy with the mustache on the far right, pens a column for the NY Times under the alias Tom Friedman. The others I do not know.

• [zuzu]

  Causing a passenger jet to crash by installing faulty parts, building a secret waste pipe to dump into a nearby river, and generally dumping toxic chemicals into the water: bad.

  Illegally importing cars that don’t meet emissions standards… eh. I get the point of emissions standards, but I’m guessing these were expensive sports cars for a handful of rich bastards. And considering all of the cars still on the road that are grandfathered in to ancient emissions standards, does this really qualify as “most-wanted fugitive” status? Aren’t there bigger fish to fry? Maybe I just need the full backstory on them.

  But to me it seems like the difference between counterfeiting UL stickers, compared to the rest who would have knowingly built houses and schools on the Love Canal toxic waste dump if given the opportunity.

• [Lauren O]

  I’m lookin’ at Wainwright. To quote Strong Bad: “Oh man, what a hottie.”

• [TroofSeeker]

  Wainwright?! I hear Wainwright is pulling a double-dime in a Turkish pokey, and spends his time blogging under the pseudonym ‘Skizzle’, or something like that. That’s waht I heard, anyway.

• [JoshuaZ]

  Well, the most three populace states are California, Texas, New York, and Florida in that order so it isn’t surprising that they would have more people who had committed certain crimes and then fled. So the real question then becomes why doesn’t Texas have a lot of representatives?

• [mdh]

  wow, the thread is full of the same kind of stupid that got most of these guys in trouble. Go figure.

• [DWittSF]

  I thought Steven Johnson, ex Bush lackey and hatchetman, was teh EPA’s most wanted fugitive.

• [Anonymous]

  If you taek a look at the Federal C.W.A. (Clean Water Act), especially provisons such as 33 U.S.C.-1319 (c)(2)(A), you’ll find one of the most draconian laws ever written. There is little to no felxibility in the law for “small fries”. It is completely unreasonable and unconstitutional and written for very large pollutors with no room for small,simple and often honest mistakes by citizens. Many of these so called “dumpings” are mistakes as to if for example a certain drain emties into a river or the local sanitation district. Have you washed out water based paint brushes into a drain near your yard or in your home? I bet most of you have. Do you know your in violation of the C.W.A. and can be prosecuted as a felon and fined $25,000 for that act? Most housewives flush more toxic crap down the drain each day than these small time violators. Do you think the U.S. attorney has the balls to take on the American woman? No way! They’d hang the S.O.B.’s (at home and in public)! Most of these small guys are really getting wacked for nothing but to justify some jerk lawyers income.

• [davevontexas]

  Wang… damn. That guy knows how to look like a million bucks in a lineup. And those pearly whites are *blinding*. I have a new hero.