Any industrial user which has violated or continues to violate this chapter, any order or permit hereunder, or any other pretreatment requirement shall be liable to the city for a maximum civil penalty of $2,500 per violation per day. In the case of a monthly or other long-term average discharge limit, penalties shall accrue for each calendar day during the period of this violation.
A. The court may award reasonable attorney fees, court costs, and other expenses associated with enforcement activities, including sampling and monitoring expenses, and the cost of any actual damages incurred by the city.
B. In determining the amount of civil penalty, the court shall take into account all relevant circumstances, including, but not limited to, the extent of harm caused by the violation, corrective actions by the industrial user, economic benefit to the user of noncompliance, the compliance history of the user, and any other factors as justice requires.
C. Where appropriate, the city may accept mitigation projects in lieu of the payment of civil penalties where the project provides a valuable service to the city and the industrial user's expense in undertaking the project is at least 150% of the civil penalty.
(Ord. 1413 § 11.2, passed 4-1-2015)