Civil Monetary Penalty Inflation Adjustment Rule

The Environmental Protection Agency (``EPA'') is amending the final Civil Monetary Penalty Inflation Adjustment Rule as mandated by the Debt Collection Improvement Act of 1996 (``DCIA'') to adjust EPA's civil monetary penalties (``CMPs'') for inflation on a periodic basis. Previously, EPA adjusted almost all of its CMPs when the final Civil Monetary Penalty Inflation Adjustment Rule was published on December 31, 1996, with technical corrections published on March 20, 1997. At that time, EPA omitted addressing the penalty provisions of Section 1018 of the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992 (``Lead-Paint Act'' or ``LPA''), and the Noise Control Act of 1972 (``Noise Act'' or ``NCA''). Like the earlier Rule, these additional adjustments will allow EPA's penalties to keep pace with inflation and thereby maintain the deterrent effect Congress intended when it originally specified penalty amounts. With this additional mandatory adjustment, all of EPA's penalty provisions will have been increased by ten percent (except for new penalty provisions enacted into law in 1996, which were not subject to being increased). The Agency is required to review its penalties again at least once every four years and to adjust them as necessary for inflation according to a specified formula. A complete version of Table 1, from 40 CFR 19.4, which now lists all of the EPA's civil monetary penalty authorities, appears near the end of this document.