Violations Of Environmental Law Are About To Get More Expensive

On July 1, EPA promulgated an interim final rule making inflation adjustments to the civil penalties under statutes it administers.  The adjustments are required by statute.  The new amounts apply to violations that occurred after November 2, 2015 and that are assessed after August 1, 2016, which is the effective date of the rule.

The rule has a handy table to locate the new penalty amounts, but to give you some sense, the maximum civil penalty for Clean Water Act violations, which was $25,000 per day in the statute and has been $37,500 based on the most recent adjustment, will rise to $51,570 per day.

Perhaps civil violations don't pay.

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