Late last year, the government started an EPA Most Wanted List, intended to track the nastiest, environmentally-offensive fugitives. The full EPA Most Wanted List is here.
The New York Times has a couple of examples of eco-fugitives that shows the variety and size of consequences in their crimes:
The list includes two men charged with smuggling ozone-destroying coolants, who are believed to have fled to Syria; a man charged in Illinois with building a secret pipeline to funnel pollutants into a tributary of the Mississippi River; and a man, believed to be in Greece, indicted on charges of dumping contaminated grain into the ocean.
Also on the list is Mauro Valenzuela, who the environmental agency says illegally had oxygen canisters loaded into the cargo hold of a ValuJet airliner that crashed into the Everglades in 1996, killing 110 people. The canisters are believed to have fed a fire that brought down the plane.
Mr. Valenzuela was charged with the illegal transport of hazardous materials, among other things. The agency says his whereabouts are unknown.
Also on the list is a con artist accused of doling out faux asbestos-removal training certificates to illegal immigrants. Her last known whereabouts were Salem, N.H.
Perhaps the most alarming thing about the various crimes committed by the eco-fugitives is how easy it sounds like some of them were. Sure, the guy in Illinois was building a secret pipeline -- no easy task -- but the asbestos con artist just sold certificates. And check out the example of the man who claimed to be disposing of toxic materials in this ZapRoot video:
Since the list was started, four EPA-listed fugitives have been captured or have surrendered -- including Baggett, the toxic disposal faker.
The EPA obviously wants to use the list to make examples of the eco-criminals. I wonder if it could inspire more mentions of environmental crime (and its dire consequences) on television.
So... what do you think?