West Virginia Code 22-6A-19 – Offenses; civil and criminal penalties
(a) Any person or persons, firm, partnership, partnership association or corporation who willfully violates any provision of this article or any rule or order promulgated under this article or any permit issued pursuant to this article is subject to a civil penalty not exceeding $5,000. Each day a violation continues after notice by the department constitutes a separate offense. The penalty shall be recovered by a civil action brought by the department, in the name of the state, before the circuit court of the county in which the subject well or facility is located. All the civil penalties collected shall be credited to the General Fund of the state.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 22-6A-19
- Conviction: A judgement of guilt against a criminal defendant.
- Corporation: A legal entity owned by the holders of shares of stock that have been issued, and that can own, receive, and transfer property, and carry on business in its own name.
- Department: means the Department of Environmental Protection. See West Virginia Code 22-6A-4
- Horizontal well: means any well site, other than a coalbed methane well, drilled using a horizontal drilling method, and which disturbs three acres or more of surface, excluding pipelines, gathering lines and roads, or utilizes more than two hundred ten thousand gallons of water in any thirty day period. See West Virginia Code 22-6A-4
- 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.
- Offense: includes every act or omission for which a fine, forfeiture, or punishment is imposed by law. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
- Partnership: A voluntary contract between two or more persons to pool some or all of their assets into a business, with the agreement that there will be a proportional sharing of profits and losses.
- Secretary: means the Secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection as established in article one of this chapter or other person to whom the secretary has delegated authority or duties pursuant to sections six or eight, article one of this chapter. See West Virginia Code 22-6A-4
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
(b) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsection (a)and (c) of this section, any person or persons, firm, partnership, partnership association or corporation who willfully disposes of waste fluids, drill cuttings or any other liquid substance generated in the development of a horizontal well in violation of this article or any rule or order promulgated under this article or in violation of any other state or federal statutes, rules or regulations, and which disposal was found to have had a significant adverse environmental impact on surface or groundwater by the secretary, is subject to a civil penalty not exceeding $100,000. The penalty shall be recovered by a civil action brought by the department, in the name of the state, before the circuit court of the county in which the subject well or facility is located. All the civil penalties collected shall be credited to the General Fund of the state.
(c) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (a) and (b) of this section, any person or persons, firm, partnership, partnership association or corporation willfully violating any of the provisions of this article which prescribe the manner of drilling and casing or plugging and filling any well or which prescribe the methods of conserving gas from waste, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction thereof shall be punished by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars, or imprisonment in jail not exceeding twelve months, or both, in the discretion of the court, and prosecution under this section may be brought in the name of the State of West Virginia in the court exercising criminal jurisdiction in the county in which the violation of such provisions of the article or terms of such order was committed, and at the instance and upon the relation of any citizens of this state.
(d) Any person who intentionally misrepresents any material fact in an application, record, report, plan or other document filed or required to be maintained under the provisions of this article or any rules promulgated by the secretary under this article shall be fined not less than $1,000 nor more than $10,000.