(a) Any person who is liable for a release, or threat of a release, of hazardous substances, and who fails, without sufficient cause, to properly provide removal or remedial action pursuant to an administrative order issued by the director, may be liable to the department for punitive damages up to three times the amount of any costs incurred by the fund pursuant to this chapter as a result of the failure to perform the actions specified in the order. The director is authorized to commence a civil action against any such person to recover the punitive damages, which shall be in addition to any costs recovered from such person pursuant to § 128D-5.

Terms Used In Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-8

  • Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
  • Department: means the department of health. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Director: means the director of health. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Fund: means the environmental response revolving fund. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
  • Person: means any individual, firm, corporation, association, partnership, consortium, joint venture, commercial entity, state, county, commission, political subdivision of the State, or, to the extent they are subject to this chapter, the United States or any interstate body. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
  • Release: means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing of any hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant into the environment, (including the abandonment or discarding of barrels, containers, and other closed receptacles containing any hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant); but excludes:

    (1) Any release which results in exposure of persons solely within a workplace, with respect to a claim which such exposed persons may assert against their employer;

    (2) Emissions from the engine exhaust of a motor vehicle, rolling stock, aircraft, vessel, or pipeline pumping station engine;

    (3) Release of source, byproduct, or special nuclear material from a nuclear incident, as those terms are defined in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 (42 U. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1

  • remedial action: means those actions consistent with permanent correction taken instead of or in addition to removal actions in the event of a release or threatened release of a hazardous substance or pollutant or contaminant into the environment, to prevent or minimize the release of hazardous substances so that they do not migrate to cause substantial danger to present or future public health or welfare or the environment. See Hawaii Revised Statutes 128D-1
(b) In addition to liability for costs incurred by the State for the investigation, assessment, containment, and removal of a release or a threat of a release of hazardous substances, any person who wilfully, knowingly, or recklessly violates or fails or refuses to comply with any provision of this chapter, or any order issued, or rule adopted under this chapter, shall be subject to a civil penalty not to exceed $50,000 for each separate violation. Each day a violation continues shall constitute a separate violation. The director is authorized to commence a civil action in the appropriate circuit environmental court to recover such penalties.
(c) Any rule issued pursuant to this chapter shall be adopted in accordance with chapter 91.
(d) Civil penalties collected under this chapter shall be paid to the department for deposit into the revolving fund and may be recovered in a civil action in [an] environmental court of competent jurisdiction where the violation is alleged to have occurred.
(e) In determining the amount of any civil penalty assessed pursuant to this section, the environmental court shall take into account the nature, circumstances, extent, and gravity of the violation or violations and, with respect to the violator, ability to pay, any prior history of such violations, the degree of culpability, economic benefit of savings, if any, resulting from the violation, and such other matters as justice may require. The director may compromise and settle any claim for a penalty pursuant to this chapter.

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