§2Q1.3 Mishandling of Other Environmental Pollutants: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2024
In fiscal year 2024, 10 people were sentenced with §2Q1.3 as the primary guideline. 3 (30%) received a prison term, with a median of 12 months, and 6 (60%) received probation only. All 10 pleaded guilty.
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In brief: In fiscal year 2024, 10 people were sentenced with §2Q1.3 as the primary guideline. 3 (30%) received a prison term, with a median of 12 months, and 6 (60%) received probation only. All 10 pleaded guilty.
This post uses the U.S. Sentencing Commission's records of 10 people sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2024. Acquittals and dismissals come from a second source, the Federal Judicial Center's records of 753,808 federal defendants whose cases ended in fiscal years 2016 to 2025. It is part of the Federal Prosecution Analysis series, which builds on Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System. How the numbers were built: How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built.
A Group of 10 People
Guideline §2Q1.3 is titled "Mishandling of Other Environmental Pollutants; Recordkeeping, Tampering, and Falsification" in the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines Manual. The U.S. Sentencing Commission counted 10 people in fiscal year 2024 whose primary guideline was §2Q1.3. The Commission classifies these cases under the offense type Environmental.
The fiscal year ran from October 1, 2023 to September 30, 2024. That is a small group. Every percentage in this post is a share of 10 or fewer people, so each person is a large part of every share.
Prison, Probation, and Supervised Release
3 of the 10 (30%) received a prison term. 6 (60%) received probation only, with no prison or other confinement. The median prison term for the 3 was 12 months. A quarter received 13 months or more, and a quarter received 6 months or less.
2 people (20%) were ordered to serve supervised release after prison. The median supervised release term was 24 months. A fine was ordered for 4 (40%), and restitution for 2 (20%).
All Guilty Pleas, One Mandatory Minimum
10 of 10 (100%) pleaded guilty, and 0 were convicted after a trial. Among guilty pleas, 100% had a written plea agreement and 0% were straight pleas.
A mandatory minimum prison term applied to 1 of the 10 people with that information recorded (10%). That is a single person, and the records do not describe the case.
Position Against the Guideline Range
The Commission had the information for all 10 people. 4 sentences (40%) were below the range without a government request. 3 (30%) were within the range, and 3 (30%) were below the range at the government's request. None was above the range.
The all-years figure for sentences within the range under §2Q1.3 is 31%, so fiscal year 2024 is about the same as that. For everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2024 under every guideline, it was 46%. In the next fiscal year, 2025, the share for §2Q1.3 was 45%.
Criminal History and the Federal Totals
90% of the group were in the lowest criminal history category, and 0% were in the highest. Court-martial records have no criminal history field.
Across fiscal years 2016 to 2025, 163 people were sentenced under §2Q1.3. 26% were sent to prison, the median prison term was 5 months, and guilty pleas were 93%. In fiscal year 2024, the share sent to prison was higher than that, and the median prison term was higher.
For all guidelines in fiscal year 2024, 61,678 people were sentenced. The median prison term was 30 months, and guilty pleas were 97%. The next fiscal year, 2025, had 11 people under §2Q1.3 and a median prison term of 0 months.
| Fiscal year | People sentenced | Median prison | Pleaded guilty |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 24 | 2.5 months | 92% |
| 2017 | 34 | 9 months | 88% |
| 2018 | 18 | 1 months | 94% |
| 2019 | 20 | 15 months | 90% |
| 2020 | 13 | 2 months | 100% |
| 2021 | 11 | 7.5 months | 100% |
| 2022 | 13 | 11.4 months | 100% |
| 2023 | 9 | 18 months | 7 of 9 |
| 2024 | 10 | 12 months | 100% |
| 2025 | 11 | 0 months | 100% |
What the Records Do Not Show
The data counts only people who were convicted and sentenced. Acquittals and dismissals are not in it, and prison terms are those imposed rather than served.
The approved crosswalk has no close court-martial counterpart for this guideline, so these are federal numbers on their own. With so few people each year, the records cannot show a trend.
How We Counted
Everyone sentenced in federal court in fiscal year 2024 whose primary sentencing guideline was §2Q1.3 (10), U.S. Sentencing Commission individual data files. The primary guideline is the one that set the offense level for the most serious count.
Federal fiscal years run from October 1 to September 30. No person, judge, or lawyer is identified in any of these records.
What to Keep in Mind
No parole in federal prison; credit for good conduct. Federal prison has no parole for crimes committed on or after November 1, 1987. A federal prisoner can earn up to 54 days of good conduct credit for each year of the sentence the judge imposed, which is about 15%. Some federal prisoners can also earn First Step Act time credits, but many offenses make a person ineligible. The numbers in this post are the sentences judges imposed, not the time people actually served.
Federal supervised release. Most federal prison sentences are followed by a term of supervised release that the judge sets as part of the sentence. A person who violates it can be sent back to prison. A court-martial cannot sentence anyone to supervision after release. Military parole and mandatory supervised release are decided later by a board, not by the judge at trial.
Who decides the sentence, and under what rules. Federal judges sentence every federal case. They must calculate the Sentencing Guidelines range, which is advisory, and must impose any mandatory minimum the statute requires unless an exception applies. In courts-martial, the accused could choose sentencing by members until the rules changed. For cases in which every guilty finding is for an offense committed after December 27, 2023, a military judge sentences alone, within sentencing parameters. Courts-martial tried in 2024 and later include both old-rule and new-rule cases, and the data cannot tell them apart.
Time periods. Federal numbers are by federal fiscal year (October 1 to September 30), based on the sentencing date. The military numbers are by trial date. Neither source has the date of the offense, so a change in law shows up in either data set gradually.
How life sentences and "time served" are counted. In the federal numbers, a life sentence is counted as 470 months, and any other sentence longer than 470 months is counted as just under 470 months. A sentence of "time served" is counted as one day (0.03 months). Averages are affected by these rules; medians much less.
Mandatory minimum sentences. Many federal statutes on drugs, images of child exploitation, child sex abuse, and firearms carry mandatory minimum prison terms. The UCMJ has mandatory minimums only for a few offenses (a dishonorable discharge or dismissal for rape and sexual assault, and life for premeditated murder). Federal sentences for these offenses are partly set by Congress, not by the judge.
Related Analysis
- Military Moves Toward Sentencing Guidelines to Mirror the Federal System (the background article)
- Federal Prosecution Analysis (all federal posts)
- How the Federal Comparison Data Was Built (sources and method)
- §2Q1.3 Mishandling of Other Environmental Pollutants: Federal Sentences, FY2016–2025 (overview)
- §2Q1.3 Mishandling of Other Environmental Pollutants: Federal Sentences, Fiscal Year 2025 (previous or next fiscal year)
- How Often Federal Judges Sentence Outside the Guideline Range
- Mandatory Minimums: How Many Federal Sentences Are Set by Congress
- U.S. Sentencing Commission, Individual Offender Datafiles (source)
- Federal Judicial Center, Integrated Database (criminal defendants) (source)
About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.