When the general manager finds that a user has violated, or continues to violate, a provision of this chapter, an individual wastewater discharge permit or general permit or order issued hereunder, or any other pretreatment standard or requirement, the general manager may petition the Westmoreland Court through THTMA's attorney for the issuance of a temporary or permanent injunction, as appropriate, which restrains or compels the specific performance of the individual wastewater discharge permit, the general permit, order, or other requirement imposed by this chapter on activities of the user. The general manager may also seek such other action as is appropriate for legal and/or equitable relief, including a requirement for the user to conduct environmental remediation. A petition for injunctive relief shall not be a bar against, or a prerequisite for, taking any other action against a user.
Any user who is found to have violated the provision, requirements, or pretreatment standards of this chapter, the rules and regulations of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection or the Environmental Protection Agency, an order, rule, regulation, or permit of THTMA or Hempfield Township, whether or not the violation is willful or negligent, may be assessed a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed $25,000 per day nor less than $1,000 per day for each violation, regardless of jurisdictional boundaries. Each violation for each separate day shall constitute a separate and distinct offense. THTMA or Hempfield Township may recover its costs for reestablishing the operation of the POTW, in addition to any civil penalty imposed hereunder. In addition, THTMA or Hempfield Township may recover attorneys' fees, all court costs, and all other expenses of litigation to the extent permitted by law. In determining the amount of civil liability, the Court shall take into account all relevant circumstances, including, but not limited to, the extent of harm caused by the violation, the magnitude and duration of the violation, any economic benefit gained through the user's violation, corrective actions by the user, the compliance history of the user, and any other factor as justice requires. Filing a suit for civil penalties shall not be a bar against, or a prerequisite for, taking any other action against a user.
A. 
A user who willfully or negligently violates any provision of this chapter, an individual wastewater discharge permit, or a general permit, or order issued hereunder, or any other pretreatment standard or requirement shall, upon conviction, be guilty of a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not more than $25,000 per violation per day, or imprisonment of not more than _____ years,[1] or both.
[1]
Editor's Note: So in original.
B. 
A user who willfully or negligently introduces any substance into the POTW which causes personal injury or property damage shall, upon conviction, be guilty of a misdemeanor and be subject to a penalty of at least $1,000, or be subject to imprisonment for not more than _____ years,[2] or both. This penalty shall be in addition to any other cause of action for personal injury or property damage available under state law.
[2]
Editor's Note: So in original.
C. 
A user who knowingly makes any false statements, representations, or certifications in any application, record, report, plan, or other documentation filed, or required to be maintained, pursuant to this chapter, individual wastewater discharge permit, general permit, or order issued hereunder, or who falsifies, tampers with, or knowingly renders inaccurate any monitoring device or method required under this chapter shall, upon conviction, be punished by a fine of not more than $25,000 per violation, per day, or imprisonment for not more than _____ years, or both.
D. 
In the event of a second conviction, a user shall be punished by a fine of not more than $25,000 per violation, per day, or imprisonment for not more than _____ years or both.
The remedies provided for in this chapter are not exclusive. The general manager may take, any, all, or a combination of these actions against a noncompliant user. Enforcement of pretreatment violations will generally be in accordance with THTMA's enforcement response plan. However, the general manager may take other action against any user when the circumstances warrant. Further, the general manager is empowered to take more than one enforcement action against any noncompliant user.
A. 
This section constitutes the Civil Penalty Assessment Policy required by the publicly owned treatment works Penalty Law (herein "Penalty Law") Act No. 9 of 1992, 35 P.S. § 752.1 et seq. When making determinations of the level of enforcement, Hempfield Township and/or THTMA shall take into consideration the following:
(1) 
Damage to air, water, land, or other natural resources and their uses;
(2) 
Costs of restoration and abatement;
(3) 
Savings to the user as a result of the violation;
(4) 
History of past violations; and
(5) 
Deterrence of future violations; and
(6) 
Other relevant factors as determined by Hempfield Township and/or THTMA.
B. 
A user must usually spend money to comply with pretreatment standards and requirements. The user makes initial capital expenditures for pretreatment, equipment, or process changes and incurs subsequent operation, maintenance, and repair costs annually. By delaying or avoiding these costs, the user realizes an economic advantage or benefit over a competitor which complied with pretreatment requirements in a timely manner. Thus the "economic benefit" of noncompliance is defined as the difference between the cost of on-time compliance and delayed compliance.
(1) 
Economic benefits realized by the user which fails to comply by a required deadline can be measured by;
(a) 
The money that the user would expect to earn by delaying the purchase of pretreatment equipment or implementation of process changes and investing the money in more profitable projects.
(b) 
The annual costs that the user avoids, and the expected return on avoided costs, during the period of noncompliance.
(c) 
Any competitive advantage the user may gain, such as increased maker share over competitors already in compliance, because of cost advantages attributed to delayed compliance.
(2) 
In this chapter, the economic benefit calculation is focused on the first two benefits. The Guidance Manual for POTW's to calculate the Economic Benefit of Noncompliance, United States Environmental Protection Agency, September 5, 1990, may be applied in calculating the penalty.
C. 
Consideration of the gravity and length of a violation is important when determining the penalty amount. Removing the economic benefit of noncompliance only places the violating user in the position it would have been had it complied on time. Both deterrence and fundamental fairness require that the civil penalty include an additional amount to ensure that noncompliance is more costly than compliance, and Hempfield Township and/or THTMA's policy will be to include such an amount.
D. 
Recovering for damages to public facilities and/or natural resources.
(1) 
Failure to comply with pretreatments standards and requirements may cause damage to the collection system of Hempfield Township or THTMA. Damage may also be caused to the natural environment. Therefore, an additional purpose of penalties in pretreatment enforcement shall be to recover for such damages. Specifically, Hempfield Township or THTMA may determine to require that a violating user pay reparations for any damage caused to the collection system by improper disposal of pollutants. Such a user may also be required to pay for replacement of equipment, facilities, and/or other damaged processes at the POTW caused by pollutant interference.
(2) 
Pollutants which pass through or interfere with POTW process may cause damage to natural systems in receiving waters. In addition to assessing penalties to recover for such damages, Hempfield Township or THTMA may consider requiring mitigation and remediation programs.
(3) 
Hempfield Township and/or THTMA will consider assessing high penalties for violations resulting in actual or potential harm to the environment. Such potential environmental harm occurs whenever a user discharges a pollutant into the Sewer System that:
(a) 
Passes through the POTW inadequately treated and causes a violation of the POTW's National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit (including water quality standards); or
(b) 
Has a potentially toxic effect on the receiving waters (e.g., a fish kill).
E. 
Cost of restoration and abatement. Some violations may be negative impacts on the POTW itself. For example, such violations may result in significant increases in treatment costs, interference, harm POTW personnel, equipment, processes, or operations, or cause sludge contamination, resulting in increased disposal costs. When a user's noncompliance harms the POTW, Hempfield Township or THTMA will assess a larger penalty.
F. 
Savings to the user as a result of violation. A user which fails to comply with pretreatment standards and requirements in a timely manner may accrue a significant economic benefit. A penalty assessed against the violator will be fixed at a level to at least negate this economic benefit and make it unprofitable for the user to ignore or violate pretreatment requirements. These requirements include installation of pretreatment equipment, one-time expenditures (e.g., land), and operation and maintenance (O&M) or other annual costs. The economic benefit calculation described in this chapter will be applied to any or all types of pollution control costs.
G. 
History of past violation.
(1) 
Hempfield Township or THTMA will consider each violation in assessing the significance of user noncompliance. Violations of average effluent limitations will be considered a violation for each day of the averaging period. Therefore, a monthly average violation will be counted as 30 days of violation, and weekly average violation as seven days of violation, and a four-day average should be counted as four violations. Violations of different parameters at the same discharge point or outfall are counted separately. The amount of the penalty will be increased as the number of violations increases. However, as provided in the Penalty Law, a single operational upset shall only be considered as one violation, even though it may result in simultaneous violations of more than one pretreatment standard.
(2) 
Hempfield Township or THTMA shall consider increasing penalty amounts for continuing, long-term violations. Generally, a long-term violation is one that continues for three or more consecutive months. In addition, penalties will be higher for violations that have continued for three years than for violations that have only occurred for six months.
(3) 
Significant non-effluent violations will be considered in assessing penalties. Violations included in this category include failure to report, late reporting, schedule violations, failure to implement an approved pretreatment program, laboratory analysis deficiencies, unauthorized discharge, operation and maintenance (O & M) deficiencies, and sludge-handling violations.
(4) 
Hempfield Township or THTMA will consider increasing the penalty amount when the violating user appears to be acting in "bad faith" (e.g., by not cooperating with Hempfield Township or THTMA in effecting a timely correction of the violation); when the user experiences unjustified delays in preventing, correcting, or mitigating violation; when the user has already violated prior administrative orders, compliance agreement, or consent decrees; or when the user fails to provide timely and full information. This recalcitrance factor also may be increased during negotiation if the user continues to resist efforts to settle.
(5) 
When a user demonstrates that it is unable to pay a settlement penalty, Hempfield Township or THTMA will independently evaluate the user's ability to pay. When it is determined that the user cannot afford to pay the penalty or that payment of all or part of the penalty will preclude the violator from achieving compliance, Hempfield Township or THTMA may consider other options. For example, Hempfield Township or THTMA may consider an installment payment plan with the user paying interest. Only as a last recourse Hempfield Township or THTMA may consider reducing the penalty amount. If the user's behavior has been exceptionally culpable, recalcitrant, or threatening to human health and the environment, inability to pay will be disregarded.
H. 
Deterrence of future violations.
(1) 
A user shall install the appropriate pollution control equipment to comply with applicable pretreatment regulations, maintaining compliance required continuing O & M and other annual expenditures. For users which fail to comply with pretreatment requirements, Hempfield Township or THTMA will set its penalties at a level to remove, at a minimum, the economic benefit from avoided annual costs during its period of violations. Hempfield Township or THTMA hereby determines that assessing a penalty which as a minimum eliminates the economic benefit of noncompliance (or makes noncompliance more expensive than compliance) will encourage users to remain in compliance.
(2) 
The intent of these penalties is to deter noncompliance so that pollutant discharges by a user do not have significant negative impacts of the POTW, collection system, or receiving waters. Hempfield Township or THTMA's policy will be not to assess a penalty that is too small (e.g., less than the economic benefit of noncomplying), so that the violating user and other users may determine that noncompliance is more expensive than compliance.
(3) 
The EPA or DEP can take enforcement action against a user violating the Clean Water Act, including federal pretreatment standards and regulations. Citizens or citizen groups can also bring civil suits against a user for violating environmental regulations. If the violating user has been sued by the EPA, state regulatory agency, or citizens or citizen groups, and penalties were imposed upon the user from these actions, Hempfield Township or THTMA may consider reducing the penalty by an amount equal to that which the user already paid for the same violation.
I. 
Other relevant factors.
(1) 
In order to treat all users fairly and equitably, Hempfield Township or THTMA will use its best efforts to assess penalties using a consistent methodology. Thus, it will avoid allowing one user to realize an economic benefit from noncompliance which would potentially enable it to gain an economic benefit, Hempfield Township or THTMA will strive to eliminate or remove any financial advantage the violator gains.
(2) 
By exercising a consistent penalty methodology, Hempfield Township or THTMA ensure that all violators are treated equitably. While the amount of the penalty may vary from case to case, the methods used to develop the penalty will be consistent.
Any person who knowingly makes any false statements, representation or certification in any application, record, report, plan or other document filed or required to be maintained pursuant to this chapter, or pretreatment permit, or who falsifies, tampers with, or knowingly renders inaccurate any monitoring device or method required under this chapter shall upon conviction be punished by a fine of not more than $1,000 or by imprisonment for not more than 30 days, or by both. Each occurrence shall be a separate offense. This section shall not preclude prosecution under the Pennsylvania Crimes Code.
The remedies provided for in this chapter are intended to be concurrent and cumulative, and the provisions of this chapter shall not abridge or alter any right of action or remedy, now or hereafter existing in law, or under the common law or statutory law, criminal or civil, available to Hempfield Township or THTMA.
The industrial user charged with the penalty shall have 30 days to pay the proposed penalty in full, or if the industrial user wishes to contest wither the amount of the penalty, or the fact of the violation, the industrial user must file an appeal of the action pursuant to the municipal law or home rule character or, in the absence of either of these, within 30 days, pursuant to 2 Pa. C.S.A. (relating to administrative law and procedure). Failure to appeal within this period shall result in a waiver of all legal rights to contest the violation or amount of the penalty.