Public Act 093-0831
 
HB5823 Enrolled LRB093 16833 BDD 42485 b

    AN ACT concerning environmental protection.
 
    Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois,
represented in the General Assembly:
 
    Section 5. The Environmental Protection Act is amended by
changing Section 42 as follows:
 
    (415 ILCS 5/42)  (from Ch. 111 1/2, par. 1042)
    Sec. 42. Civil penalties.
    (a) Except as provided in this Section, any person that
violates any provision of this Act or any regulation adopted by
the Board, or any permit or term or condition thereof, or that
violates any order of the Board pursuant to this Act, shall be
liable for a civil penalty of not to exceed $50,000 for the
violation and an additional civil penalty of not to exceed
$10,000 for each day during which the violation continues; such
penalties may, upon order of the Board or a court of competent
jurisdiction, be made payable to the Environmental Protection
Trust Fund, to be used in accordance with the provisions of the
Environmental Protection Trust Fund Act.
    (b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a) of
this Section:
        (1) Any person that violates Section 12(f) of this Act
    or any NPDES permit or term or condition thereof, or any
    filing requirement, regulation or order relating to the
    NPDES permit program, shall be liable to a civil penalty of
    not to exceed $10,000 per day of violation.
        (2) Any person that violates Section 12(g) of this Act
    or any UIC permit or term or condition thereof, or any
    filing requirement, regulation or order relating to the
    State UIC program for all wells, except Class II wells as
    defined by the Board under this Act, shall be liable to a
    civil penalty not to exceed $2,500 per day of violation;
    provided, however, that any person who commits such
    violations relating to the State UIC program for Class II
    wells, as defined by the Board under this Act, shall be
    liable to a civil penalty of not to exceed $10,000 for the
    violation and an additional civil penalty of not to exceed
    $1,000 for each day during which the violation continues.
        (3) Any person that violates Sections 21(f), 21(g),
    21(h) or 21(i) of this Act, or any RCRA permit or term or
    condition thereof, or any filing requirement, regulation
    or order relating to the State RCRA program, shall be
    liable to a civil penalty of not to exceed $25,000 per day
    of violation.
        (4) In an administrative citation action under Section
    31.1 of this Act, any person found to have violated any
    provision of subsection (o) of Section 21 of this Act shall
    pay a civil penalty of $500 for each violation of each such
    provision, plus any hearing costs incurred by the Board and
    the Agency. Such penalties shall be made payable to the
    Environmental Protection Trust Fund, to be used in
    accordance with the provisions of the Environmental
    Protection Trust Fund Act; except that if a unit of local
    government issued the administrative citation, 50% of the
    civil penalty shall be payable to the unit of local
    government.
        (4-5) In an administrative citation action under
    Section 31.1 of this Act, any person found to have violated
    any provision of subsection (p) of Section 21 of this Act
    shall pay a civil penalty of $1,500 for each violation of
    each such provision, plus any hearing costs incurred by the
    Board and the Agency, except that the civil penalty amount
    shall be be a $3,000 for each violation of any provision of
    subsection (p) of Section 21 that is the person's second a
    second or subsequent adjudication violation of that
    provision. The penalties shall be deposited into the
    Environmental Protection Trust Fund, to be used in
    accordance with the provisions of the Environmental
    Protection Trust Fund Act; except that if a unit of local
    government issued the administrative citation, 50% of the
    civil penalty shall be payable to the unit of local
    government.
        (5) Any person who violates subsection 6 of Section
    39.5 of this Act or any CAAPP permit, or term or condition
    thereof, or any fee or filing requirement, or any duty to
    allow or carry out inspection, entry or monitoring
    activities, or any regulation or order relating to the
    CAAPP shall be liable for a civil penalty not to exceed
    $10,000 per day of violation.
    (b.5) In lieu of the penalties set forth in subsections (a)
and (b) of this Section, any person who fails to file, in a
timely manner, toxic chemical release forms with the Agency
pursuant to Section 25b-2 of this Act shall be liable for a
civil penalty of $100 per day for each day the forms are late,
not to exceed a maximum total penalty of $6,000. This daily
penalty shall begin accruing on the thirty-first day after the
date that the person receives the warning notice issued by the
Agency pursuant to Section 25b-6 of this Act; and the penalty
shall be paid to the Agency. The daily accrual of penalties
shall cease as of January 1 of the following year. All
penalties collected by the Agency pursuant to this subsection
shall be deposited into the Environmental Protection Permit and
Inspection Fund.
    (c) Any person that violates this Act, any rule or
regulation adopted under this Act, any permit or term or
condition of a permit, or any Board order and causes the death
of fish or aquatic life shall, in addition to the other
penalties provided by this Act, be liable to pay to the State
an additional sum for the reasonable value of the fish or
aquatic life destroyed. Any money so recovered shall be placed
in the Wildlife and Fish Fund in the State Treasury.
    (d) The penalties provided for in this Section may be
recovered in a civil action.
    (e) The State's Attorney of the county in which the
violation occurred, or the Attorney General, may, at the
request of the Agency or on his own motion, institute a civil
action for an injunction, prohibitory or mandatory, to restrain
violations of this Act, any rule or regulation adopted under
this Act, any permit or term or condition of a permit, or any
Board order, or to require such other actions as may be
necessary to address violations of this Act, any rule or
regulation adopted under this Act, any permit or term or
condition of a permit, or any Board order.
    (f) The State's Attorney of the county in which the
violation occurred, or the Attorney General, shall bring such
actions in the name of the people of the State of Illinois.
Without limiting any other authority which may exist for the
awarding of attorney's fees and costs, the Board or a court of
competent jurisdiction may award costs and reasonable
attorney's fees, including the reasonable costs of expert
witnesses and consultants, to the State's Attorney or the
Attorney General in a case where he has prevailed against a
person who has committed a wilful, knowing or repeated
violation of this Act, any rule or regulation adopted under
this Act, any permit or term or condition of a permit, or any
Board order.
    Any funds collected under this subsection (f) in which the
Attorney General has prevailed shall be deposited in the
Hazardous Waste Fund created in Section 22.2 of this Act. Any
funds collected under this subsection (f) in which a State's
Attorney has prevailed shall be retained by the county in which
he serves.
    (g) All final orders imposing civil penalties pursuant to
this Section shall prescribe the time for payment of such
penalties. If any such penalty is not paid within the time
prescribed, interest on such penalty at the rate set forth in
subsection (a) of Section 1003 of the Illinois Income Tax Act,
shall be paid for the period from the date payment is due until
the date payment is received. However, if the time for payment
is stayed during the pendency of an appeal, interest shall not
accrue during such stay.
    (h) In determining the appropriate civil penalty to be
imposed under subdivisions (a), (b)(1), (b)(2), (b)(3), or
(b)(5) of this Section, the Board is authorized to consider any
matters of record in mitigation or aggravation of penalty,
including but not limited to the following factors:
        (1) the duration and gravity of the violation;
        (2) the presence or absence of due diligence on the
    part of the respondent in attempting to comply with
    requirements of this Act and regulations thereunder or to
    secure relief therefrom as provided by this Act;
        (3) any economic benefits accrued by the respondent
    because of delay in compliance with requirements, in which
    case the economic benefits shall be determined by the
    lowest cost alternative for achieving compliance;
        (4) the amount of monetary penalty which will serve to
    deter further violations by the respondent and to otherwise
    aid in enhancing voluntary compliance with this Act by the
    respondent and other persons similarly subject to the Act;
        (5) the number, proximity in time, and gravity of
    previously adjudicated violations of this Act by the
    respondent;
        (6) whether the respondent voluntarily self-disclosed,
    in accordance with subsection (i) of this Section, the
    non-compliance to the Agency; and
        (7) whether the respondent has agreed to undertake a
    "supplemental environmental project," which means an
    environmentally beneficial project that a respondent
    agrees to undertake in settlement of an enforcement action
    brought under this Act, but which the respondent is not
    otherwise legally required to perform.
    In determining the appropriate civil penalty to be imposed
under subsection (a) or paragraph (1), (2), (3), or (5) of
subsection (b) of this Section, the Board shall ensure, in all
cases, that the penalty is at least as great as the economic
benefits, if any, accrued by the respondent as a result of the
violation, unless the Board finds that imposition of such
penalty would result in an arbitrary or unreasonable financial
hardship. However, such civil penalty may be off-set in whole
or in part pursuant to a supplemental environmental project
agreed to by the complainant and the respondent.
    (i) A person who voluntarily self-discloses non-compliance
to the Agency, of which the Agency had been unaware, is
entitled to a 100% reduction in the portion of the penalty that
is not based on the economic benefit of non-compliance if the
person can establish the following:
        (1) that the non-compliance was discovered through an
    environmental audit, as defined in Section 52.2 of this
    Act, and the person waives the environmental audit
    privileges as provided in that Section with respect to that
    non-compliance;
        (2) that the non-compliance was disclosed in writing
    within 30 days of the date on which the person discovered
    it;
        (3) that the non-compliance was discovered and
    disclosed prior to:
            (i) the commencement of an Agency inspection,
        investigation, or request for information;
            (ii) notice of a citizen suit;
            (iii) the filing of a complaint by a citizen, the
        Illinois Attorney General, or the State's Attorney of
        the county in which the violation occurred;
            (iv) the reporting of the non-compliance by an
        employee of the person without that person's
        knowledge; or
            (v) imminent discovery of the non-compliance by
        the Agency;
        (4) that the non-compliance is being corrected and any
    environmental harm is being remediated in a timely fashion;
        (5) that the person agrees to prevent a recurrence of
    the non-compliance;
        (6) that no related non-compliance events have
    occurred in the past 3 years at the same facility or in the
    past 5 years as part of a pattern at multiple facilities
    owned or operated by the person;
        (7) that the non-compliance did not result in serious
    actual harm or present an imminent and substantial
    endangerment to human health or the environment or violate
    the specific terms of any judicial or administrative order
    or consent agreement;
        (8) that the person cooperates as reasonably requested
    by the Agency after the disclosure; and
        (9) that the non-compliance was identified voluntarily
    and not through a monitoring, sampling, or auditing
    procedure that is required by statute, rule, permit,
    judicial or administrative order, or consent agreement.
    If a person can establish all of the elements under this
subsection except the element set forth in paragraph (1) of
this subsection, the person is entitled to a 75% reduction in
the portion of the penalty that is not based upon the economic
benefit of non-compliance.
(Source: P.A. 93-152, eff. 7-10-03; 93-575, eff. 1-1-04;
revised 9-11-03.)
 
    Section 99. Effective date. This Act takes effect upon
becoming law.

Effective Date: 7/28/2004