Rivers on Fire and Corporate Liars
The Monitoring and Sanctioning of U.S. Water Pollution Crimes

Joshua Ozymy (Author), Melissa Jarrell Ozymy (Author)

9781978845992

Hardback, published 14 April 2026

202 pages, 25 B-W images and 29 tables
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.8 cm, 0.4 kg

"This is, to my knowledge, the first book to offer a substantial, in-depth analysis of the use of the federal criminal environmental enforcement mechanisms available in the U.S. Relevant laws, policies, and history are reviewed in separate chapters that take up the enforcement of several major environmental regulations. The book provides an excellent overview of water pollution regulations and their enforcement at the federal level." - Michael J. Lynch, coeditor of The Handbook on Inequality and the Environment

For over four decades, the US federal government has undertaken efforts to police and prosecute environmental crimes to protect public health and the natural environment. Yet, we still know very little about how US federal agencies have monitored and sanctioned water pollution violations and if these actions actually deter crime. In Rivers on Fire and Corporate Liars, Joshua Ozymy and Melissa Jarrell Ozymy examined over one thousand federal water pollution investigations and prosecutions undertaken by the US EPA and Department of Justice from 1983 to 2023 to answer these questions. Their analysis provides the most comprehensive empirical examination to date of how the criminal enforcement of water pollution has evolved over time, patterns in prosecutions, and how criminals were sanctioned.

1 Punishing Environmental Crimes 1
2 Water Pollution and the Evolution of Criminal Enforcement 14
3 Tapped Out: Prosecuting Drinking Water Crimes 28
4 Thar She Blows: Prosecuting Ship Pollution Crimes 46
5 Water Worries: The Clean Water Act and Related Crimes 65
6 Toward a Framework for Understanding Federal Water Pollution Crimes 81
7 Punishing in an Age of Hostility 106
Notes 121
Index 149