For the undetermined duration of the coronavirus crisis, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued a sweeping suspension of its enforcement of environmental laws. It stressed, however, that this applies only to civil violations and “does not provide leniency for intentional criminal violations of law.”

Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the EPA is committed to protecting human health and the environment, but recognizes that “challenges resulting from efforts to protect workers and the public from COVID-19 may directly impact the ability of regulated facilities to meet all federal regulatory requirements."

The agency said it “does not expect to seek penalties for noncompliance with routine monitoring and reporting obligations that are the result of the COVID-19 pandemic,” although it expects operators of public water systems to continue ensuring the safety of supply.

"During this extraordinary time,” the EPA said, “it is more important for facilities to ensure that their pollution control equipment remains up and running and the facilities are operating safely than to carry out routine sampling and reporting."

To be eligible for enforcement discretion, the policy requires facilities to document decisions made to prevent or mitigate noncompliance and demonstrate how the noncompliance was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The US environmental watchdog said the “temporary policy, which will be terminated when this crisis is past,” makes it clear that EPA expects regulated facilities to comply with regulatory requirements, where reasonably practicable, and to return to compliance as quickly as possible.

The proposals have met with criticism both from NGOs sector and officials of the agency under former president Barack Obama. Cynthia Giles, former head of the EPA’s Office of Enforcement, called the plans “a moratorium on enforcing the nation's environmental laws and an abdication of the agency's duty.”

Giles said the EPA has essentially waived its rules for the indefinite future, telling companies  they will not face enforcement even if they emit unlawful air and water pollution in violation of environmental laws, as long as they claim that those failures are in some way caused by the virus pandemic.

The waiver also “allows them an out on monitoring, too, so we may never know how bad the violating pollution was,” the former enforcement official said.

 The oil and petrochemicals sector reportedly has asked for relief from regulations due to the pandemic. In a 10-page letter to the EPA earlier this week, quoted by Washington newspaper The Hill, the American Petroleum Institute (API) asked for a suspension of rules that require repairing leaky equipment as well as monitoring to make sure pollution doesn’t seep into nearby water.

Other industry sectors are said to have asked for suspension of the force majeure clauses of legal settlements they had previously signed with the EPA. These allow for an extension of deadlines to meet various environmental goals in the face of unforeseen circumstances.

However, Giles said the EPA’s announcement even goes beyond that request and gives  industries “broad authority to pollute” with little oversight from the agency, which does not even reserve the right to act in the event of an imminent threat to public health.

Other critics said the waiver of rules is too broad. “It is not clear why refineries, chemical plants and other facilities that continue to operate and keep their employees on the production line will no longer have the staff or time they need to comply with environmental laws,” said Eric Schaeffer, a former EPA director.