Lavelle's responsibilities included development of corporate guidelines to comply with the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, a law that her later position at the EPA left her to administer nationwide compliance with by both business and government sectors.
On February 18, 1982, President Ronald Reagan announced his intention to nominate Lavelle for assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for solid waste and emergency response.
Lavelle was indicted on federal perjury charges after an investigation was launched based on evidence submitted by another EPA employee, whistleblower Hugh Kaufman.
The evidence showed that Lavelle was involved with misuse of the EPA's "Superfund" money[5] during her tenure with the agency, and irregularities at the Stringfellow Acid Pits, a major hazardous waste site.
In 1983, Lavelle was charged with contempt of Congress for refusing to answer questions about why she was removed as head of the toxic waste disposal program, but was acquitted at trial.
Lavelle and Robert V. Cole, a part owner of Denova Environmental, Inc., a hazardous waste storage facility in Rialto, California, forged documents that purportedly bore the signature of Joseph Bertelli, the owner of Lemco Corporation in South Los Angeles, to make it appear that Bertelli owed Cole's company more than $52,000 for the removal and storage of hazardous waste.