Federal Register: December 31, 1996 (Volume 61, Number 252 Page 69359-69366)
Federal Register: March 20, 1997 (Volume 62, Number 54 Page
13513-13517)
Federal Register: June 27, 1997 (Volume 62, Number 124 Page
35037-35041)
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access
(wais.access.gpo.gov)
Part V
Environmental Protection Agency
40 CFR Parts 19, 27 and 745
[FRL-5671-1]
Civil Monetary Penalty
Inflation Adjustment Rule,
Corrections and Final Rule Amended, and Penalty
Policy
AGENCY: Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA).
ACTION: Final rule, Corrections to final rule, Final
Rule, Amended, and Penalty Policy
On December 31, 1996, the Environmental Protection Agency ("EPA") issued its final Civil Monetary Penalty Inflation Adjustment Rule as mandated by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 ("DCIA"). Prior to this new law, EPA's penalties had never been adjusted for inflation. This rule was required by Congress to allow EPA's penalties to keep pace with inflation and thereby maintain the deterrent effect intended when the penalties were originally set by statute. Violations which occur after the January 30, 1997, effective date are subject to the adjusted penalties.
This first mandatory adjustment under the DCIA to EPA's civil monetary penalties ("CMPs") for inflation was limited to ten percent. This adjustment therefore increased almost all of EPA's penalty provisions by ten percent (except for new penalty provisions enacted into law in 1996 under the Safe Drinking Water Act which were not subject to being increased). Future adjustments for inflation are required on a periodic basis of at least once every four years using a specified formula.
On March 20, 1997, EPA published a notice and the text of a "Correction" containing corrections and additions to the Civil Monetary Penalty Inflation Adjustment Rule, final regulations (FRL-5671-1). The corrections were all technical in nature and neither affected the substance nor the effective date of the final rule. When the Agency finds that additional information would aid the public in understanding the rule or the overall regulations, then "additions" can also be included in the correction document. This correction clarified the final rule published Tuesday, December 31, 1996, (61 F.R. 69359), and can be found at 62 F.R. 13513, 3/20/97.
On May 9, 1997, the Assistant Administrator for OECA issued a new penalty policy: Modifications to EPA Penalty Policies to Implement the Civil Monetary Penalty Inflation Rule (Pursuant to the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996). This penalty policy modified all of our existing civil penalty policies to conform to the DCIA and the new rule by increasing the gravity component for penalty calculations by ten percent.
Two of EPA's statutory penalty provisions - CMPs - had not been identified at the time of the December rule-making. On June 27,1997, one last amendment to the Final Rule was published in the Federal Register (62 F.R. 35037, 6/27/97) to adjust those CMPs so that every penalty provision will have been adjusted for inflation. With the last additional mandatory adjustments, all 65 of EPA's penalty provisions have been increased by ten percent - except for the 1996 Safe Drinking Water Act penalty provisions, which were not subject to being adjusted, but are otherwise included in Table 1 of 40 CFR 19.4. The published rule, as modified and amended, will be found at 40 CFR Part 19. A complete version of Table 1 now lists all of the EPA's civil monetary penalty authorities, and appears in the June 27, 1997, Federal Register and will appear in the new Code of Federal Regulations published after July 1, 1997.