(A) Any user who is found to have failed to comply with any provision of this chapter, or the orders, rules, regulations, and permits issued hereunder, may be assessed a civil penalty of up to $25,000 per day per violation. Penalties between $10,000 and $25,000 per day per violation may be assessed against a violator only if:
(1) For any class violation, only if a civil penalty has been imposed against the violator within five years preceding the violation; or
(2) In the case of failure to file, submit, or make available, as the case may be, any documents, data, or reports required by this chapter, or the orders, rules, regulations, and permits issued hereunder, only if the POTW Director determines that the violation was intentional and a civil penalty has been imposed against the violator within the five years preceding the violation.
(B) In determining the amount of the civil penalty, the POTW Director shall consider the following:
(1) The degree and extent of the harm to the natural resources, to the public health, or to
public or private property resulting from the violation;
(2) The duration and gravity of the violation;
(3) The effect on ground or surface water quantity or quality or on air quality;
(4) The cost of rectifying the damage;
(5) The amount of money saved by noncompliance;
(6) Whether the violation was committed willfully or intentionally;
(7) The prior record of the violator in complying or failing to comply with the pretreatment program; and/or
(8) The costs of enforcement to the county.
(C) Appeals of civil penalties assessed in accordance with this section shall be as provided in § 52.004(B)(8).
(D) Section 52.029 of this chapter may be enforced by any one or move of the following penalties and remedies:
(1) Criminal penalty; continuing violations. An owner of improved property located so as to be served by said county owned or operated sewage collection line who fails to so cause his or her property to be connected within 60 days after being notified in writing by the county’s Public Utilities Department to so connect shall be guilty of a misdemeanor as provided in G.S. § 14-4 and shall be fined no more than $50. Each day that said owner fails to connect his or her property to said system shall constitute a separate and distinct offense.
(2) Civil remedies. Upon the failure of any owner of improved property located so as to be served by a county owned or operated sewage collection line within 60 days after being served with notice by the county’s Public Utilities Department to so connect, said owner shall be subject to civil remedies in the General Court of Justice for the imposition of civil fines, the ordering of appropriate equitable relief including injunction to compel such owner to connect his or her improved property to said sewage collection line, or a combination of such remedies.
(Ord. passed 7-23-1984; Res. passed 8-2-2004; Ord. passed 12-5-2011)