Of the 23 U.S. EPA special agents who transferred away from the agency's Criminal Enforcement Division (CID) since 2006, 10 left last year.

The uptick in transfers -- which outpaced mandatory retirements for special agents for the first time in five years -- has one environmental watchdog concerned that EPA lacks the law enforcement power to effectively protect the public against eco-crimes.

"It looks like the eco-cops are fleeing the beat," said Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility Executive Director Jeff Ruch, whose group filed the Freedom of Information Act request to obtain CID's staff turnover records. "We are losing the significant public investment in training these specialized white-collar criminal investigators."

PEER released the FOIA responses today in its latest blast at the management practices at CID and within the larger Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training.

PEER is not the only one concerned about the agency's criminal enforcement program. Last year, an EPA-sponsored independent review of the office's personnel practices and a survey conducted by the Office of Personnel Management painted a picture of a harsh and unwelcoming work environment that has alienated OCEFT employees.

In a memo to staff last October in which she detailed the results of those reviews, Assistant Administrator for Enforcement Cynthia Giles acknowledged that "significant issues exist [in OCEFT] that warrant the attention of senior management."

In that memo, Giles also announced that she had appointed Howard Cantor to serve as OCEFT's acting director.

In his response to PEER's FOIA request, Cantor said he has visited all 10 area offices to talk to CID managers and staff about improving communication and promoting a more productive and healthy working environment for agents and other OCEFT employees. He said he has also asked the special agent advisory committee to conduct a review of CID's code of conduct policies and is working with the EPA employee counseling and assistance program to implement a training program tailored toward stress management and incident responses for OCEFT employees.

"The health of OCEFT as an organization and the morale of its employees are critically important to ensuring that criminal enforcement remains a key component of the agency's mission and provides a powerful deterrent to those who engage in criminal violations of our environmental laws," Cantor wrote in his response to PEER.

But PEER continues to insist that EPA is neglecting to beef up the number of criminal investigators.

Ruch noted in its release today that the number of special agents at CID had fallen to 154 during 2010, well below the 200 that President Obama had pledged.

Agency officials, however, said today that CID currently has more than 200 agents investigating environmental crimes.

"EPA's criminal enforcement program and the morale of its employees are critically important to achieving the agency's mission to protect human health and the environment," EPA said in a statement responding to the PEER release.

"Attrition rates in EPA's Office of Criminal Enforcement, Forensics and Training (OCEFT) over the last five years are comparable to the Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA). EPA continues to take concrete steps to improve communications and promote a more productive and healthy working environment for its special agents and OCEFT employees."