319.503. Emergencies created by hazardous liquids being transported--powers of director--civil actions, penalties, deposit--no liability for owners, when. - Missouri Statutes

Emergencies created by hazardous liquids being transported--powersof director--civil actions, penalties, deposit--no liability forowners, when.

319.503. 1. If the director of the department of natural resourcesdetermines that the owner or operator of a pipeline which transports hazardousliquids as defined in the federal Liquid Pipeline Safety Act of 1979, 49U.S.C. 2001, et seq., is responsible for a hazardous substance emergency, hemay cause to have instituted a civil action in any court of competentjurisdiction for injunctive relief to prevent any continuation of thehazardous substance emergency or for the assessment of a civil penalty up toten thousand dollars per day for each day or part thereof that the hazardoussubstance emergency occurred and continues to occur. The director may alsoseek up to twenty-five hundred dollars for each subsequent day the effect ofthe emergency causes noncompliance with water quality standards promulgated bythe clean water commission pursuant to chapter 644, RSMo. The total amount ofany civil penalty imposed for violation of water quality standards shall notexceed five hundred thousand dollars. In determining the amount of civilpenalty for noncompliance with water quality standards under this section, thecourt shall consider the seriousness of the violation, the degree ofculpability involved, any other penalty imposed for the same incident, thenature, extent and degree of success of any efforts of the violator tominimize or mitigate the effects of the discharge, and any other matters asjustice may require. The director may request either the attorney general ora prosecuting attorney to bring any action authorized in this section in thename of the people of the state of Missouri. Suit may be brought in anycounty where the defendant's principal place of business is located or wherethe hazardous substance emergency is located or was located at the time theemergency occurred. Moneys received pursuant to this section which are notrequired by article IX, section 7 of the Constitution of Missouri to bedistributed to schools shall be deposited in an appropriate subaccount of thenatural resources protection fund created in section 640.220, RSMo.

2. Commencement of an action to assess a civil penalty under thissection shall preclude the assessment of an administrative penalty for thesame violation except that this limitation shall not apply to persons whom thedepartment has determined to have habitually violated the requirements of theMissouri clean water law, the clean water laws of other states or federal lawspertaining to clean water. The commission shall promulgate rules andregulations to provide further clarification of a habitual violator under thissubsection.

3. Any person otherwise liable under the provisions of section 319.500and this section is not liable if he demonstrates that the hazardous substanceemergency occurred as the result of an act of God, an act of war, an act ofthe state of Missouri or the United States, or solely by the act of a thirdparty.

(L. 1991 S.B. 45 § 2)