455B.477 Penalties — burden of proof.

1. A person who violates a provision of this part or a rule or order issued under this part is subject to a civil penalty not to exceed five thousand dollars for each day during which the violation continues. The civil penalty is an alternative to a criminal penalty provided under this part.

2. A person who knowingly fails to notify or makes a false statement, representation, or certification in a record, report, plan or other document filed or required to be maintained under this part or who falsifies, tampers with or knowingly renders inaccurate a monitoring device or method required to be maintained under this part or by a rule or order issued under this part, is guilty of an aggravated misdemeanor.

3. The attorney general, at the request of the director with approval of the commission, shall institute any legal proceedings, including an action for an injunction, necessary to enforce the penalty provisions of this part or to obtain compliance with the provisions of this part or rules adopted or order issued under this part. In any action, previous findings of fact of the director or the commission after notice and hearing are conclusive if supported by substantial evidence in the record when the record is viewed as a whole.

4. In all proceedings with respect to an alleged violation of a provision of this part or a rule adopted or order issued by the commission, the burden of proof is upon the commission or the department.

5. If the attorney general has instituted legal proceedings in accordance with this section, all related issues which could otherwise be raised by the alleged violator in a proceeding for judicial review under section 455B.478 shall be raised in the legal proceedings instituted in accordance with this section.

6. The penalty for intentional failure of an owner or operator to register a petroleum underground storage tank under section 455B.473 shall be a minimum of seven thousand five hundred dollars up to a maximum of ten thousand dollars after October 1, 1989.

7. The civil penalties or other damages or moneys recovered by the state or the petroleum underground storage tank fund in connection with a petroleum underground storage tank under this part of this division or chapter 455G shall be credited to the fund created in section 455G.3 and allocated between fund accounts according to the fund budget. Any federal moneys, including but not limited to federal underground storage tank trust fund moneys, received by the state or the department of natural resources in connection with a release occurring on or after May 5, 1989, or received generally for underground storage tank programs on or after May 5, 1989, shall be credited to the fund created in section 455G.3 and allocated between fund accounts according to the fund budget, unless such use would be contrary to federal law. The department shall cooperate with the board of the Iowa comprehensive petroleum underground storage tank fund to maximize the state’s eligibility for and receipt of federal funds for underground storage tank related purposes.

85 Acts, ch 162, §7; 86 Acts, ch 1245, §1899A; 88 Acts, ch 1244, §10; 89 Acts, ch 131, §39

Referred to in §29C.8A, 455B.476, 455B.478