EPA Final Rule: Civil Monetary Penalty Inflation Adjustment

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is promulgating this final rule to adjust the level of the maximum and minimum statutory civil monetary penalty amounts under the statutes the EPA administers. This action is mandated by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act of 1990, as amended through the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015 (“the 2015 Act”). The 2015 Act prescribes a formula for annually adjusting the statutory maximum and minimum amount of civil monetary penalties to reflect inflation, maintain the deterrent effect of statutory civil monetary penalties, and promote compliance with the law. The rule does not establish specific civil monetary penalty amounts the EPA may seek in particular cases. The EPA calculates those amounts, as appropriate, based on the facts of particular cases and applicable agency penalty policies. The EPA's civil penalty policies, which guide enforcement personnel on how to exercise the EPA's discretion within statutory penalty authorities, take into account a number of fact-specific considerations,e.g., the seriousness of the violation, the violator's good faith efforts to comply, any economic benefit gained by the violator as a result of its noncompliance, and the violator's ability to pay.

DATES: This final rule is effective January 8, 2025. Published in theFederal Register January 8, 2025, page 1375.

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§19.2 Effective date.

(a) The statutory civil monetary penalty levels set forth in the third column of Table 1 of§19.4 apply to all violations which occur or occurred after November 2, 2015, where the penalties are assessed on or after December 27, 2023. The statutory civil monetary penalty levels set forth in the fourth column of Table 1 of§19.4 apply to all violations which occurred after November 2, 2015, where the penalties were assessed on or after January 6, 2023, but before December 27, 2023.

(b) The statutory monetary penalty levels in the third column of Table 2 to§19.4 apply to all violations which occurred after December 6, 2013, through November 2, 2015, and to violations occurring after November 2, 2015, where penalties were assessed before August 1, 2016. The statutory civil monetary penalty levels set forth in the fourth column of Table 2 of§19.4 apply to all violations which occurred after January 12, 2009, through December 6, 2013. The statutory civil monetary penalty levels set forth in the fifth column of Table 2 of§19.4 apply to all violations which occurred after March 15, 2004, through January 12, 2009. The statutory civil monetary penalty levels set forth in the sixth column of Table 2 of§19.4 apply to all violations which occurred after January 30, 1997, through March 15, 2004.

§19.4 Statutory civil monetary penalties, as adjusted for inflation, and tables.

Table 1 of this section sets out the statutory civil monetary penalty provisions of statutes administered by the EPA, with the third column setting out the latest operative statutory civil monetary penalty levels for violations that occur or occurred after November 2, 2015, where penalties are assessed on or after December 27, 2023. The fourth column displays the operative statutory civil monetary penalty levels where penalties were assessed on or after January 6, 2023, but before December 27, 2023. Table 2 of this section sets out the statutory civil monetary penalty provision of statutes administered by the EPA, with the operative statutory civil monetary penalty levels, as adjusted for inflation, for violations that occurred on or before November 2, 2015, and for violations that occurred after November 2, 2015, where penalties were assessed before August 1, 2016.