Deutsch Relays, Inc. v. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

There is no dispute that the petitioner violated the effluent emissions limitations of its New York State Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit a total of 874 times between November 1983 and December 1986. During this period the petitioner failed to submit monthly noncompliance reports required pursuant to its permit, despite having been re-apprised of this requirement in April 1985. Thus, that portion of the total penalty imposed for these effluent emissions violations, totalling $635,000, was not so disproportionate to the nature of the offense as to be shocking to one’s sense of…