On October 8, the Observer-American published a news release titled “EPA fines Jonas for right to know act reporting violation”. This article implies that our failure to report endangered the public and our emergency responders. The overall tone was that the EPA has caught a furtive polluter.
The facts are that we report our yearly sales of gasoline, diesel and kerosene to the Lake County Air Quality District and our bulk plant physical layout and products stored to the lake County Environmental Health Department. This information is provided to the emergency responders who are all aware of our existence and activities.
The U.S. EPA report is slightly different in format but is really a duplication of our existing reporting.
We submitted this EPA report for years until we downsized to the point where we believed that we were exempt from the reporting requirement which was less than 10 employees at the location so we stopped sending it in 2005. In 2007 the EPA auditors informed me that there was another criteria ? the 20,000 yearly hours worked rule.
Oops! We were not aware of that one and unfortunately we turned out to be slightly over that amount and therefore in violation.
Even though there was no release of chemicals and the violation was an honest mistake, the fine for this horrible transgression started out at over $200,000-00. That was a shocking bit of information ? absolutely unbelievable! After hiring an attorney and a year of anxiety and negotiation we were able to get the fine reduced to $10,000.00 by proving that the huge fine would be permanently damaging to our company.
This is a prime example of regulatory over kill that small business faces every day. We report to dozens of agencies who all have ever increasing fees and requirements of our time and who have potentially huge fine schedules. Our elected representatives have shown no willingness to moderate this regulatory zeal and have not responded to my written requests for comment.
My company has provided jobs for up to 50 employees for almost forty years and I believe we have been responsible, contributing members of the community.
If we were not diverting large sums dealing with unreasonable regulatory issues (and the EPA is not the only culprit), our employees, customers and the economy in general would be better off. Under the current conditions of governmental control and the costs involved there is very little incentive to risk the investment to develop a business.
Unfortunately the willingness to take that risk is what the economy needs now.
Jim Jonas is a resident of Lower Lake and owner of Jim Jonas, Inc. Opinions expressed in all Guest Commentaries are solely those of the individual writers and do not necessarily reflect the views or endorsement of the Lake County Record-Bee or its staff.
