With the EPA it can be much worse then the original fine. If it were my biz I would buy the machine or turn down the work.
At a past place of work an employee was incorrectly disposing of a very small amount of harmful chemical. When it was discovered it was corrected. But that didn't prevent a disgruntled employee from reporting it. So the EPA investigated and for this really isolated- and already corrected - incident they wanted him to sign a statement of guilt for that and future infractions. In other words, he was admitting to guilt for future problems they find. He wanted to just pay the fine and limit the scope to just that incident. The FDA refused. So the owner fought it. It went on for years and cost significantly more than what the original fine was. And there were smaller things found that he got fined for on future inspections that were from not knowing the exact proper procedure in every case. They actually tried very hard to do things right. But with intense scrutiny they will always find something eventually. There were articles written inflating the whole thing. It was not a good thing for the biz to go through.
So if the garage owner pays the first fine, there will be more like it for the next few years. The FDA does this to avoid costly future investigators and legal events. If you are more pessimistic then you might say it's an unjust way of getting more money out of polluters. I can say objectively that they never fabricated infractions and the inspectors were professional.
Regardless of how you feel about regulation, it's better to do things the right way from the beginning to avoid the scrutiny - not to mention the damage to the earth.
The $3000 is a bargain compared to the fines.
At a past place of work an employee was incorrectly disposing of a very small amount of harmful chemical. When it was discovered it was corrected. But that didn't prevent a disgruntled employee from reporting it. So the EPA investigated and for this really isolated- and already corrected - incident they wanted him to sign a statement of guilt for that and future infractions. In other words, he was admitting to guilt for future problems they find. He wanted to just pay the fine and limit the scope to just that incident. The FDA refused. So the owner fought it. It went on for years and cost significantly more than what the original fine was. And there were smaller things found that he got fined for on future inspections that were from not knowing the exact proper procedure in every case. They actually tried very hard to do things right. But with intense scrutiny they will always find something eventually. There were articles written inflating the whole thing. It was not a good thing for the biz to go through.
So if the garage owner pays the first fine, there will be more like it for the next few years. The FDA does this to avoid costly future investigators and legal events. If you are more pessimistic then you might say it's an unjust way of getting more money out of polluters. I can say objectively that they never fabricated infractions and the inspectors were professional.
Regardless of how you feel about regulation, it's better to do things the right way from the beginning to avoid the scrutiny - not to mention the damage to the earth.
The $3000 is a bargain compared to the fines.
