Borough of Catasauqua, PA Civil Penalties for Violation of Pretreatment Permits

The Borough of Catasauqua, through its Pretreatment Officer (or in his absence, the Borough Manager), may assess a civil penalty in an amount not to exceed $25,000 per day for each violation, regardless of jurisdictional boundaries. Civil penalties may be assessed against:

Any user of the system who violates any provision of this article, or Ordinance No. 852, as amended.[1]

[1]

Editor's Note: See Art. III of this chapter.

Any pretreatment permit holder who violates any condition of its permit including, but not limited to, its effluent discharge limits.

§ 210-35 Separate violations.

Each violation for each separate day shall constitutes a separate and distinct offense.

§ 210-36 Willfulness not required.

The civil penalty may be assessed whether or not the violation was willful or negligent.

§ 210-37 Notice.

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.

§ 210-38 Policy on assessment.

The civil penalty shall be assessed in accordance with § 210-39 which sets forth the Borough of Catasauqua's assessment policy considering damage to air, water, land or other natural resources, cost of restoration and abatement, saving resulting to the person for the violation, history of past violations, deterrence of future violations and other relevant factors.

§ 210-39 Chart for assessment.

Assessment shall be as follows:

Damage to Environment	Points	Costs of 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. 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

Deterrence of Future Violations	Points	Other Factors	Points
Extremely Important	5	(Such as damage to pretreatment works, willfulness, or concealment, others)	5
Important	4		4
Moderate	3		3
Slight	2		2
Minimal	1		1

Points shall be assessed for a violation in accordance with the above chart which constitutes the Borough of Catasauqua assessment policy. Points shall be totalled and the civil penalty shall be assessed as follows:

	No. 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 pretreatment officer 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

§ 210-40 Use of civil penalties.

All civil penalties collected shall be placed in a restricted account and shall only be used by the Borough of Catasauqua (operator) or with permission of the Borough of Catasauqua, the Catasauqua Borough Authority (owner) 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 of action resulting in penalty for monitoring of discharges in the pretreatment program and for capital improvement to the treatment works including sewage collection lines.

§ 210-41 Other remedies.

The Borough of Catasauqua shall retain the power to use all other available remedies provided by law to enforce its pretreatment ordinance including injunctive relief.

§ 210-42 Appeals.

Any penalty seeking to appeal the assessment of a civil penalty shall do so by filing a notice of appeal with the Borough Manager within 30 days after receipt or service of said notice.

The Borough Council 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. 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 Borough Council in resolution for fees and charges.[1]

[1]

Editor's Note: See Ch. A285, Fees.

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 ab initio.

The Borough Council shall either affirm the decision of the Pretreatment Officer or reverse or modify the same as the substantial evidence indicates in accordance with the assessment policy adopted by the Borough.

Appeals from the decision of the Borough Council shall be in accordance with state law.

§ 210-43 Address information.

Each permit holder shall keep the Borough apprised 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.

§ 210-44 Costs of damage to the publicly owned treatment works.

[Amended 11-6-1995 by Ord. No. 1044]

The Borough shall charge all costs for establishing the operation of the public owned treatment works after a violation to said violator. These costs shall be paid by the violator within 10 days after notice of assessment of civil penalties. Any violator not timely paying said assessment shall pay an additional penalty of 5% per month or any part thereof.