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16 S. Ill. U. L.J. 687 (1991-1992)
Environmental Law: Does the Application of the Responsible Corporate Officer Doctrine Apply to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

handle is hein.journals/siulj16 and id is 705 raw text is: ENVIRONMENTAL LAW: DOES THE APPLICATION OF THE RESPONSIBLE CORPORATE OFFICER DOCTRINE APPLY To THE RESOURCE CONSERVATION AND RECOVERY ACT? Richard S. Porter I. INTRODUCTION Citizens throughout the United States have been subjected to unprovoked attacks from a silent and often unseen enemy. The enemy is toxic waste disposed of by American companies in a reckless and haphazard fashion. Such attacks have occurred at Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York, and at Times Beach, Missouri.' Envi- ronmental attacks such as these provoked a wide spread public concern about toxic waste disposal in the early 1980's.2 1. The Love Canal was used by Hooker Chemical Company in the 1940's as a disposal site for hazardous wastes. The canal was subsequently filled-in and sold to the Niagara Falls Board of Education. A school was constructed at th edge of the canal and homes were built on the rest of the land. A resounding occurrence of miscarriages, birth defects, and liver disease, was reported in the area. Love Canal was eventually declared a disaster area by President Carter. The town of Times Beach, Missouri was entirely evacuated after a nearby horse farm was sprayed with industrial waste which contained dioxin. After the spraying, many animals in the area died. Though there is no evidence, as of yet, that any person was harmed by the waste at Time Beach, and it is currently suggested that dioxin may not be as harmful as originally believed, the government bought every home in the town. The United States government has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to clean-up these two sites alone. Further, these two instances have provoked lawsuits amounting to billtions of dollars. E. WILLARD MILLER & RUBY M. MILLER, ENVIRONMENTAL HAZARDS: Toxic WASTE AND HAZARDOUS MATERIAL 19-22 (1991). 2. Christopher Harris et al., Criminal Liability for Violations of Federal Hazardous Waste Law: The Knowledge of Corporations and Their Executives, 23 WAKE FOREST L. REV. 203, 205 (1988). The article discusses the knowledge required for a criminal conviction under Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). However, the article simply accepts the assertion made in United States v. Johnson & Towers Inc., 741 F.2d 662, 669 (3rd Cir. 1984), that the requisite mens rea for conviction under RCRA can be inferred by a corporate officers position. The focus of this comment will be to show that the responsible corporate officer doctrine should not be applied to RCRA by the courts without an explicit congressional mandate to do so.