I received a comment on the LinkedIn boards today about my last post--why did the dairy farm only get a $2,000 in the settlement of a State enforcement action approved by the Illinois Pollution Control Board? My response was that everything depends on the facts of the case--what was the extent of the environmental harm, previous violations by the defendant, etc. This theory was demonstrated in a recent press release from U.S. EPA regarding a federal enforcement action against a livestock operation that featured a penalty with a much higher amount:
"U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has ordered Greenville Livestock Inc., 25815 Hugo Road, Centralia, Ill., to pay a $40,000 fine for failing to comply with the Clean Water Act. EPA previously ordered the facility to stop all unauthorized discharges and apply to the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency for a permit to discharge wastewater.
"Greenville is a large concentrated animal feeding operation in the Kaskaskia River watershed in central Illinois with more than 1,000 cattle.
"An EPA inspection found that Greenville was not using best management practices to prevent the discharge of manure and other animal production waste. EPA also discovered that the facility did not have a Clean Water Act permit to discharge."
Stay tuned to the Illinois Environmental Law Blog for more news and developments.
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