Joining Forces to Combat Polluters : Conference: Representatives from U.S., state and local governments underline the need for multi-agency cooperation.

David Wilma was sharing a “war story” with almost 200 federal, state and local officials who crowded into a conference room in Downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday to talk about busting environmental criminals. One night in 1991, an Oakland policeman discovered a truck dumping green sludge into the Oakland estuary. The Oakland Police Department’s environmental crimes team--consisting of one officer--investigated, but the sludge turned out to be food waste, and could not legally be considered a hazardous material. So the police could not file charges.

Then Wilma’s branch of the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s investigative force got a call from police describing the situation. EPA officials told the police that the trucking company could be prosecuted for violating the Clean Water Act, and a multi-agency investigation was under way.

“It’s a real typical example of a case that started with a phone call,” Wilma said. It resulted in prosecutions in four judicial districts across California of a trucking company that dumped waste at night. And, Wilma said, it is also an example of why prosecuting environmental crimes requires interagency cooperation.

Officials from at least a dozen agencies, including the Los Angeles and Orange County district attorneys, Los Angeles City Atty. James Hahn and U.S. Atty. Nora Manella, were at the conference Wednesday to aid that collaboration.

“The polluters of our land, air and water are hoping this conference is a failure,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Nathan Hochman. But “the partnership between federal, state and local agencies is growing stronger”--important, he said, because “the fist will always be mightier than five separate fingers.”

The meeting, the first of its type and size in Southern California in 10 years, underscores the fact that environmental crimes join violent crimes and health fraud as the top priorities for federal prosecution, said Manella, head U.S. attorney in the district that includes Los Angeles.

“The environmental crime committed by any one criminal, such as the contamination of our water supply, poses as much of a threat to our safety as a violent crime,” Manella said.

Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti said his jurisdiction contains 20,000 to 25,000 businesses involved in storing hazardous waste, making environmental enforcement a high priority in his office.

“I’m here to assure you that my office does more than handle one case,” said Garcetti, as the crowd laughed at the quip by the man whose office is prosecuting O.J. Simpson.

Orange County Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi said his jurisdiction has special reason to be concerned with environmental enforcement, citing a surge in industrial manufacturing and the pitfalls of the effects of agricultural methods once considered safe and now deemed environmentally harmful.

John Morris, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles bureau’s white-collar crime unit, said his agency is interested in investigating environmental criminals partly because those involved usually commit other crimes .

Much of the conference was devoted to going through regulations and prosecution procedures. Wilma told the participants it was crucial that agencies be aware of their goals in each case, noting that strategies can differ depending on whether one wants a conviction, fine or a court order to stop dumping.