Previously the law provided for imprisonment of up to three years for first violators and for up to five for repeat violators. Now there is only the threat that violators maybe subject to prosecution for a criminal misdemeanor. A similar tradeoff can be seen in revisions to language dealing with people who knowingly release hazardous substances into the environment. Repeat violators face no harsher treatment than first-time offenders in the new law. One of the more significant revisions is that criminal penalties now apply only to managers or supervisors.
Ordinary employees are exempt.
In any event, don't expect the jails to be filled overnight with environmental villains. The law does not allow any criminal penalties to take effect until the state contingency plan has been adopted. But no citizen may sue if the state has taken even the most minimal action on its own, including commencement of an investigation. Nor do citizens have any legal right under this law to challenge compromises or settlements worked out between the director of health and violators. The application of pesticides is still exempt from regulation under this law, although now there is the qualification that pesticides must be applied in a legal manner in order for the exemption to be valid.