Common use of Maximum and Minimum Liability Amounts Including Mandatory Minimum Penalties for pH Alleged Violations Clause in Contracts

Maximum and Minimum Liability Amounts Including Mandatory Minimum Penalties for pH Alleged Violations. Maximum Liability: The maximum administrative liability amount pursuant to Water Code sections 13385 is $10 per gallon discharged for every gallon over 1,000 that is not cleaned up, plus a maximum of $10,000 for each day in which each violation occurs. As previously noted, the Prosecution Team is recommending the application of per day liability only. Therefore, the maximum liability provided below accounts only for the maximum per day liability. The maximum liability amount is $1,610,000 as calculated below. Maximum Per Day Liability Amount: 161 days x $10,000/day = $1,610,000 Minimum Liability: The Enforcement Policy states that the Total Base Liability Amount should be at least 10 percent higher than the economic benefit amount, “so that liabilities are not construed as the cost of doing business and that the assessed liability provides a meaningful deterrent to future violations.” The minimum liability associated with economic benefit is $298,898 ($271,725 + 10 percent [or $27,173]). The mandatory minimum penalty for the dibromochloromethane, dichlorobromomethane, total nitrogen, and total copper effluent limitation violations pursuant to Water Code section 13385, subdivisions (h) and (i), is $39,000. The Final Liability Amount for the dibromochloromethane, dichlorobromomethane, total nitrogen, and total copper effluent limitation violations is within the minimum and maximum liability amounts. Mandatory Minimum Penalty for pH Violations: Water Code section 13385 subdivisions (h) and (i) require the assessment of a $3,000 mandatory minimum penalty of $3,000 for specified serious and non-serious (also known as “chronic”) effluent limitation violations. The Discharger’s pH violations listed in Attachment B-1 are designated as non-serious or chronic effluent limitation violations because each pH violation was preceded by three or more other effluent limitation violations within the 180-day period preceding a given pH violation. Therefore, each of the 46 pH violations is subject to a mandatory minimum penalty of $3,000 each. The total mandatory minimum penalty is $138,000 (46 violations x $3,000).