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Maureen O’Mara To Head EPA’s Criminal Investigation Program in the Southeast

Release Date: 03/26/2009
Contact Information: Davina Marraccini, (404) 562-8293, marraccini.davina@epa.gov

(ATLANTA – Mar. 26, 2009) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training, has announced that Maureen O’Mara is the new Special Agent in Charge of its Criminal Investigation Division (CID) Area Office in Atlanta. O’Mara will supervise environmental crimes investigations throughout EPA Region 4, which encompasses Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

“Maureen brings a wealth of criminal enforcement experience to this position,” said Ella R. Barnes, Director of EPA’s national Criminal Investigation Division in Washington, D.C. “She will work closely with our federal and state law enforcement and regulatory partners to protect the public and environment in the Southeast.”

EPA’s criminal enforcement program was established in 1983 and is integral to the agency’s overall enforcement work. CID’s mission is to investigate allegations of the most egregious violations of federal environmental statutes, and to assist the U.S. Department of Justice in the prosecution of individuals and corporations charged with criminal offenses.

CID is comprised of nearly 200 criminal investigators—federal agents with full law enforcement authority who are highly trained and committed to protecting human health and the environment. A CID Area Office under the supervision of a Special Agent in Charge is located in each of EPA’s ten regional offices, with smaller offices in several dozen other locations across the country.

O’Mara joined EPA’s Criminal Investigation Division in 1994. Prior to being named Special Agent in Charge of the Area Office in Atlanta, she served as a Special Agent in Chicago and Minneapolis, as well as the Resident Agent in Charge of the Sacramento Office and as Assistant Agent in Charge of the Dallas Area Office. O’Mara served as a Lieutenant in the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve from 2000 through 2006 conducting pollution investigations and contingency planning. O’Mara was an On-Scene Coordinator for EPA beginning in 1989 until she joined EPA’s CID, and prior to that she held technical positions in environmental consulting firms that supported the federal government. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of California at Santa Cruz.