Reconciling environmental liability standards after Iverson and Bestfoods

In Iverson, the Ninth Circuit upheld a corporate officer's criminal convict ion under the Clean Water Act (CWA), applying the Responsible Corporate Off icer (RCO) doctrine that allows mens rea to be inferred from the defendant' s position and/or level of responsibility. Significantly, Iverson employs t he RCO's broad "authority to control" test for corporate officer liability in the face of Bestfood's narrow "actual control" ruling for parent corpora tion liability. At the very least, Iverson demonstrates the Ninth Circuit's willingness to aggressively enforce the CWA with an unpopular doctrine whi ch may or may not actually repudiate the traditional mens rea requirement n ecessary for criminal convictions.