Contact: Johanna Reese 919-715-7357
Date: November 15, 2001 Distribution: Statewide
'Truth In Penalties' Emphasized In DENR's Enforcement Plan
RALEIGH - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources has developed a plan for its enforcement efforts that targets those responsible for serious or willful environmental violations with stiff fines and other sanctions.
"Those who pollute the environment in North Carolina must pay the price," said Bill Ross, DENR secretary. "Effective enforcement of regulatory programs must include penalties that deter pollution and protect our environment. Truth in Penalties will establish a penalty structure that is clear, understandable and consistent. It will send a clear message to those who foul our air and water: environmental violations will be met with strong, swift and decisive action."
The Truth In Penalties (TIP) framework establishes guidelines for the department to ensure that serious violations are met with serious consequences. Under the new effort, penalties will be consistently and vigorously enforced and the public will have access to information about the penalty process.
In his State of the State address, Governor Mike Easley called for Truth in Penalties so that environmental fines cannot be manipulated.
DENR has also gathered information about its environmental enforcement activities in a first annual compliance report that compiles data on the agency's enforcement efforts for calendar year 2000 and outlines the general direction DENR will take with future compliance activities. Two areas of emphasis will be the amount and timeliness of fines violators pay.
"Our programs must not allow violators to consider paying environmental fines simply part of doing business, and our enforcement systems should provide violators a fair process for responding to an assessment without setting up avenues for them to manipulate the process," said Ross. "We want each of our 15 different enforcement programs to be strong, fair and effective, and we will focus particular attention on how each program handles violations that involve willful or egregious conduct to make sure our enforcement actions are consistent and have adequate deterrent effect."
During the next several months each regulatory division, working with department leadership, will examine its enforcement programs' processes for assessing penalties and determine what changes are needed, including possible changes in rules or laws, to meet the goals of Truth In Penalties. This includes helping the regulated community and environmental groups understand and evaluate the strength, fairness and effectiveness of the department's enforcement programs.
Data in the compliance report include amount of time elapsed from identification of a problem to issuance of a notice of violation, amount of time from assessment of a penalty to payment, number of penalties assessed, and the relationship between enforcement and compliance. Since this is the first report, not all programs were collecting all the types of data needed for the report; programs will be collecting that information from now on. The report is available at http://www.enr.state.nc.us/compliancereport2000.pdf.
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