1. Notification of Violation. When the Township Manager finds that a user has violated, or continues to violate, any provision of this Part, a wastewater discharge permit or order issued hereunder, or any other pretreatment standard or requirement, the Township Manager may serve upon that user a written notice of violation. Within 20 days of the receipt of this notice, an explanation of the violation and a plan for the satisfactory correction and prevention thereof, to include specific required actions, shall be submitted by the user to the Township Manager. Submission of this plan in no way relieves the user of liability for any violations occurring before or after receipt of the notice of violation. Nothing in this Section shall limit the authority of the Township Manager to take any action, including emergency actions or any other enforcement action, without first issuing a notice of violation.
2. Consent Agreements. The Township Manager may enter into consent agreements, assurances of voluntary compliance or other similar documents establishing an agreement with any user responsible for noncompliance. Such documents will include specific action to be taken by the user to correct the noncompliance within a time period specified by the document.
3. Show Cause Hearing. The Township Manager may order a user which has violated, or continues to violate, any provision of this Part, a wastewater discharge permit or order issued hereunder, or any other pretreatment standard or requirement, to appear before the Township Manager and show cause why the proposed enforcement action should not be taken. Notice shall be served on the user specifying the time and place for the meeting, the proposed enforcement action, the reasons for such action and a request that the user show cause why the proposed enforcement action should not be taken. The notice of the meeting shall be served personally or by registered or certified mail (return receipt requested) at least 10 days prior to the hearing. Such notice may be served on any authorized representative of the user. A show cause hearing shall not be a bar against, or prerequisite for, taking any other action against the user.
4. Compliance Orders. When the Township Manager finds that a user has violated, or continues to violate, any provision of this Part, a wastewater discharge permit or order issued hereunder, or any other pretreatment standard or requirement, the Township Manager may issue an order to the user responsible for the discharge directing that the user come into compliance within a specified time. A compliance order may not extend the deadline for compliance established for a pretreatment standard or requirement, nor does a compliance order relieve the user of liability for any violation, including any continuing violation. Issuance of a compliance order shall not be a bar against, or a prerequisite for, taking any other action against the user.
5. Cease and Desist Orders. When the Township Manager finds that a user has violated, or continues to violate, any provision of this Part, a wastewater discharge permit order issued hereunder, or any other pretreatment standard or requirement, or that the users past violations are likely to recur, the Township Manager may issue an order to the user directing it to cease and desist all such violations and directing the user to:
A. Immediately comply with all requirements; and,
B. Take such appropriate remedial or preventive action as may be needed to properly address a continuing or threatened violation, including halting operations and/or terminating the discharge. Issuance of a cease and desist order shall not be a bar against, or a prerequisite for, taking any other action against the user.
6. Administrative Civil Penalties.
A. When the Township Manager finds that a user has violated, or continues to violate, any provision of this Part, a wastewater discharge permit or other issued hereunder, or any other pretreatment standard or requirement, the Township Manager may fine such user in an amount not to exceed $25,000 regardless of jurisdictional boundaries. Such penalties shall be assessed on a per violation, per day basis. In the case of monthly or other long term average discharge limits, fines shall be assessed for each day during the period of violation. The penalties may be assessed whether or not the violation was willful or negligent.
B. Notice of assessment of civil penalty shall state the appeal process to be followed including the name, address and telephone number of the person responsible for accepting such appeal. Said notice shall also contain the date or dates of violation, the permit requirement that was violated and the amount of civil penalty assessed. The notice shall state the time frame for appeal. It shall be served personally on the violator or shall be sent by certified mail to the address of the permit holder as noted on the permit.
C. The civil penalty shall be assessed in accordance with subsection (D), below, which sets forth the City of Allentown's assessment policy considering damage to air, water, land or other natural resources, cost of restoration and abatement, savings resulting to the person for the violation, history of past violations, deterrence of future violations and other relevant factors.
D. Chart for Assessment.
Damage to Environment | Cost of Points | Restoration/Abatement | Points |
Extreme | 5 | Over 10,000 | 5 |
Severe | 4 | 7,000 | 4 |
Moderate | 3 | 5,000 | 3 |
Slight | 2 | 2,500 | 2 |
None | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Savings to Violator | Points | Past Violations No. of Violations in Last 365 days | Points |
Savings to Violator | Points | Past Violations No. of Violations in Last 365 days | Points |
10,000 | 5 | 5 | 5 |
7,500 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
5,000 | 3 | 3 | 3 |
2,500 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
0 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
Other Factors | |||
Such as drainage to POTW, Willfulness or concealment, others | 5 4 3 2 1 | ||
Points shall be assessed for a violation in accordance with the above chart which constitutes the Township of Hanover assessment policy.
Points shall be totaled and the civil penalty shall be assessed as follows:
Number of Points | Penalty |
25 | $25,000 |
20 | 20,000 |
15 | 15,000 |
10 | 10,000 |
5 | 5,000 |
The assessment of penalties may include numbers which are not whole, such as 1.5, to allow flexibility and discretion by the Township Manager in arriving at a fair and appropriate penalty. The above listed monetary civil penalties shall be then prorated to reflect the less than whole number of points assessed.
Example: Total Points = 12.5 Civil Penalty = $12,500.
E. All civil penalties collected shall be placed in a restricted account and shall only be used by the Township of Hanover to repair damage and provide for additional maintenance and costs as a result of violations, to pay penalties imposed by State or Federal government for violation of pretreatment standards, for the costs of investigation and enforcement action resulting in penalty for monitoring of discharge in the pretreatment program and for capital improvement to the POTW.
F. Any party seeking to appeal the assessment of a civil penalty shall do so by filing a notice of appeal with the Township Manager within 30 days after receipt or service of said notice. The Appeal Board shall hear all such appeals. A transcript shall be made of said hearing at the sole expense of the appellant. Appellant shall pay the cost of appeal and the sum for estimate of stenographer bills at the time of filing said appeal and the sum for estimate of stenographer bills at the time of filing said appeal. Failure to pay said sums at the time of filing shall make the appeal void. The charge for an appeal and the advancement of stenographer costs shall be established by the Township administrative regulations. After the hearing, any additional stenographer charges shall be billed to appellant and shall be paid in full within 10 days of receipt or appeal shall be null and void. The Appeals Board shall either affirm the decision of the Township Manager or reverse or modify the same as the substantial evidence indicates in accordance with the assessment policy adopted by the Township. Appeals from the decision of the Appeals Board shall be in accordance with State law.
G. Each permit holder shall keep the Township appraised in writing of any change in mailing address. The address on the permit shall be used to send all correspondence and notice of civil assessment to permit holders. The sending of a notice of civil assessment to a permit holder's address on permit shall conclusively be presumed to be valid service; thus, if the certified mail sent to such address is not accepted or picked up by permit holder, the date of service shall be the date that the certified mail was rejected or returned unclaimed.
H. The Township shall charge all costs for reestablishing the operation of the publicly owned treatment works after a user has violated, or continues to violate any provision of this Part, a wastewater discharge permit, or order issued hereunder or any other pretreatment standard or requirement. These costs shall be paid by user within 10 days after notice of assessment of tile same. Notice and appeal rights shall be the same as in the case of assessment of civil penalties. Any user not paying said assessment shall pay an additional penalty of 5% of the penalty per month or any part thereof.
I. Issuance of an administrative fine shall not be a bar against, or a prerequisite for, taking any other action against the user.
(Ord. 339, 7/3/1996, § 4)