The Environmental Hearing Board ("EHB") has eliminated a civil penalty assessed by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection ("DEP") because it did not first hold an assessment conference. In the case of Charles E. Brake Co. v. DEP, EHB Docket No.98-026-C (Dec. 21, 1999), the EHB upheld the challenge of Brake to the $800 penalty assessed by DEP for mining shale on property not bonded or owned by Brake. The Department's regulations provide for an assessment conference for civil penalties assessed under the Noncoal Surface Mining Act. Brake requested such a conference, and one was scheduled. But when Brake asked for a postponement, DEP cancelled the conference and issued the assessment. The Board emphasized that it considered the conference an important safeguard and denied DEP the right to assess a penalty without one. "By failing to respond at all [to Brake's request for a postponement], canceling Appellant's March 25, 1998 hearing, and assessing the penalty without re-scheduling the conference, the Department effectively deprived Appellant of the assessment conference guaranteed by Section 77.301(b)."
No Civil Penalty Without Assessment Conference
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