Alert! Yes – Inflation Affects Everything: EPA Increases Fines for Civil Non-Compliance
What You Need to Know
Key takeaway #1
EPA released its 2025 new civil maximum penalties covering the statutes the agency implements.
Key takeaway #2
The 2025 penalty maximums increased by slightly more than 1.00 % that last year’s penalty levels.
Key takeaway #3
Statutory violations do not automatically result in the agency’s pursuit of the maximum fines; instead, personnel involved in the cases assess the appropriate fine on a case-by-case basis.
Client Alert | 4 min read | 01.23.25
On January 8, 2025, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published a final rule in the Federal Register adjusting upward the maximum monetary civil penalties for violating its regulations. This rule raised the minimum and maximum fines for 2025 by 1.02% from their 2024 levels. New penalty amounts go into effect immediately and apply to violations occurring after January 8, 2025.
Federal agencies are required by the Federal Civil Penalties Inflation Adjustment Act Improvements Act of 2015, 28 U.S.C. § 2461, to publish annual updates to their civil penalties by January 15th each year. See Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget guidance.
The 2025 adjusted penalties apply to violations under major environmental statutes implemented by EPA, including the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), Clean Water Act (CWA), Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA), Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Clean Air Act (CAA), and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA), as well as the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.
Below are some of EPA’s new civil penalties for violations of key statutes:
|
Statute |
2025 Civil Penalties |
2024 Civil Penalties |
|
CWA[i] |
$68,445 (per day for each violation) $342,218 (daily maximum) |
$66,712 (daily maximum per violation) $333,552 (daily maximum) |
|
CAA[ii] |
$59,114 - $124,426 (per violation) $472,901 (daily maximum per violation) |
$57,617 - $121,275 (per violation) $460,926 (daily maximum per violation) |
|
CERCLA[iii] |
$71,545 (per day initial violation) $214,637 (maximum penalty subsequent violation) |
$69,733 (per day initial violation) $209,202 (maximum penalty subsequent violation) |
|
RCRA[iv] |
$93,058 (maximum per day) |
$90,702 (maximum per day) |
|
TSCA[v] |
$49,772 (maximum per day) |
$48,512 (maximum per day) |
A full listing of EPA’s new civil penalties maximums can be found in 40 C.F.R. § 19.
Violations of the environmental statutes may not always result in a maximum penalty. EPA calculates specific penalty amounts on a case-by-case basis. EPA-regulated entities should take note of this increase, however, as these new fine amounts guide EPA enforcement personnel as they decide which actions to pursue, considering factors such as “the seriousness of the violation, the violator's good faith efforts to comply, any economic benefit gained by the violator as a result of its noncompliance, and the violator's ability to pay.” Id.
Stay tuned for more civil fine updates for other federal environmental statutes as soon as they are released.
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Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
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