The section investigates and prosecutes those who violate Ohio's environmental laws and represents state agencies that protect Ohioans and their environment and natural resources.
How does your section take up investigations?
We get involved upon request of agencies, of county prosecutors, of local law enforcement, and others. Inside our Environmental Enforcement Section, there is a Criminal Prosecution Unit made up of two attorneys and the environmental criminal investigators, including a BCI special agent supervisor and five BCI agents.
What agencies does your section represent?
We have six agency clients that we represent in court — in criminal and civil cases — and during administrative appeals. They are: the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, Ohio Department of Natural Resources, Ohio Department of Agriculture, State Fire Marshal’s Bureau of Underground Tank Regulations, Ohio Power Siting Board, and State Emergency Response Commission. We also receive referrals from local boards of health.
What is the section’s role when it gets involved in an agency’s case?
Those agencies are the executive branch — they implement the law through regulation. But, when they need the law enforced, they need us to go into court and get a judge’s order or criminal conviction. We are the enforcement side. When there has been environmental damage done, in addition to cleaning up the harm, we fight for a penalty, too.
Why is the penalty important?
Civil penalties have two purposes: One is to penalize those who violate the law; the second is to deter others from engaging in the sort of conduct that would violate the law. The penalty makes people ensure that their equipment is well-run so that they don’t have toxic releases. You don’t want someone releasing, for example, oil and gas into a river and just saying, “Well, I cleaned it up. No big deal.” You have to be able to say, “No, there’s a consequence to you for not following the rules.” When the environmental harm is severe, the penalty should be higher.
How many employees are in the section?
Myself and 35 attorneys; three paralegals; six BCI agents; three environmental background agents; one consumer liaison; one forensic economist; and nine support staff. Of those attorneys, two are in Toledo, two in Cleveland, and seven at ODNR.
Do you ever get tips about environmental hazards from the public?
Yes. The Environmental Enforcement Section has a constituent liaison officer who serves subpoenas and deals with public inquiries. We have, on occasion, received tips from the public.
The section works with task forces, too, right?
Yes, the criminal enforcement team — both Environmental Enforcement Unit agents and Environmental Enforcement Section Criminal Prosecution Unit attorneys — participate in four geographical environmental crime task forces throughout Ohio. The task forces are made up federal, state, and local regulators, criminal investigators, and attorneys. The task forces coordinate all criminal and environmental investigations in their geographic area and are primarily under the direction of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in each geographic area. The lead investigative law enforcement agency is determined by the type of the environmental media, such as water or air.
How is your section organized?
The areas within the section are: Air; Water; Agriculture; Power Siting; Criminal; Solid Waste; Hazardous Waste; Superfund Cleanup; Emergency Response; Underground Storage Units; Bankruptcy and Post-judgment Enforcement; Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR); Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) and Environmental Background Investigations Unit (EBIU). And we have a forensic economist who helps decide penalties by looking into what available assets exist.
What challenges does your section face?
Litigation can be a challenge. It’s not driven on your schedule but on the events. So we are sometimes dealing with things such as emergency temporary restraining orders. I had two of those my first week on the job, in April. We had to work the weekend because we had one for ODNR and one for the Ohio EPA. The emergency comes, and you have to drop what you were doing to make sure you are servicing your client and to make sure the people of the state of Ohio are protected. That’s the bottom line: We are servicing the clients in order to protect the people of Ohio.
What might readers not know about your section?
The EBIU performs the triennial background checks on the owners and operators of the 140 solid waste facilities in Ohio. And, if a new landfill wants in, they have to be investigated, also. The checks are meant to keep organized crime out of the waste industry in Ohio and to make sure the waste industry owners and operators have a level of education, experience, and competency to instill public confidence in an industry that, if improperly managed, could negatively impact the health and welfare of many Ohioans.
The Hoover File
Previous jobs: attorney with Hoover Law Offices (2014-2016); partner in Kohrman, Jackson & Krantz (2001-2014); partner in Roderick, Myers & Linton (1996-2000); judicial attorney for Justice Deborah Cook, Ohio Supreme Court (1995-1996); judicial attorney for Judge Cook, 9
th District Court of Appeals (1992-1994); legal writing instructor at The Ohio State University Mortiz School of Law
Education: Bachelor of Arts, Miami University; Juris Doctorate, University of Dayton School of Law
Hobbies: Travel (recently to Hong Kong with husband Jeff, and their 11-year-old daughter, Tori); coaching volleyball and basketball for fourth- and fifth-graders; spending time with Tori; gardening; playing catch with their rescue Lab, Casey
Favorite quote: “I try to live my life by the Golden Rule: ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ ”
Contact information: 614-466-5249; 30 E. Broad St., 25
th Floor, Columbus, OH 43215;
Valoria.Hoover@OhioAttorneyGeneral.gov