After promising starts in the late 1960s and early '70s, America, and indeed the world, are again evaluating the environmental costs of industrialized society. This concern is reflected in the complex and burgeoning legal and regulatory framework created by lawmakers in recent years to control environmentally hazardous materials and activities.

One indicator of our increasing concentration on environmental conditions is the treatment of intentional polluting as criminal activity. Prosecutors have been empowered to charge and send to prison those who compromise our environment and health for mere economic benefit.

Most criminal enforcement involves materials known as "hazardous wastes." These are substances with demonstrated deleterious effects on human health or the environment.

There are more than 800 recognized hazardous wastes in California. Most of them are byproducts of manufacturing processes.

Why are people willing to endanger society by dumping these hazardous wastes illegally? Usually, the answer is a matter of economics.

It is very expensive to send hazardous waste materials to proper treatment facilities. Conversely, it costs almost nothing to dump them in the sewer, the landfill, or simply pour them directly into the soil. Surprisingly, those individuals charged with unlawful disposal crimes are not always operators of small or failing companies that cannot afford the high disposal fees. Many recent criminal defendants have been well-heeled executives heading successful corporations.

Ignorance is another factor in unlawful disposals. Many citizens have no idea that products such as used oil, anti-freeze and oil-based paints are hazardous wastes. Fortunately, Orange County recently opened a full-time household hazardous waste disposal center in Anaheim (at 1131 Blue Gum St.), which will accept all such materials in small quantities free of charge.

Earlier this year, Michael Capizzi, Orange County district attorney, expanded his staff of environmental prosecutors to three attorneys. This has permitted the district attorney's office to take one of the most aggressive stances against environmental crime of any prosecutor's office in the state. The approach is simple: Illegal dumping, abandonment or transportation of hazardous wastes is a crime affecting every citizen in the state. People engaging in this activity will be treated as serious criminal offenders.