The federal environmental laws also empower EPA to issue administrative orders that require a regulated entity to perform, or refrain from performing, some designated action, and to come into, and maintain, compliance with those environmental laws. Enforcement is done through the filing of lawsuits either in Federal District Courts or within EPA through an administrative proceeding. Most all environmental statutes authorize both the assessment of a civil penalty for violations and injunctive relief to bring the violator back into compliance. The federal environmental laws also provide for criminal penalties and jail time for egregious violations, but the subject of the reports provided in ORC's Web site is civil and administrative relief, not criminal fines and remedies. Generally, a civil or administrative penalty is really no different than the fine one must pay for receiving a parking ticket.
Civil penalties work best for single, non-continuous violations.
However, in cases in which the violations continue, a civil penalty in itself is insufficient to bring the violator into compliance. An injunction is simply a court order to do, or refrain from doing, a particular act. In the context of a settlement, injunctive relief is required by a Consent Decree approved by the Court or an administrative Consent Order signed by the Respondent. As an administrative agency in the Executive Branch, EPA can issue orders but, unlike judges in the Judicial Branch, EPA cannot independently enforce those orders through contempt authority. This definition describes the content of ORC's injunctive relief reports .