Opinion ID: 201338
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: EQB Orders

Text: 3 The Puerto Rico Environmental Quality Board (EQB) issued an order in August 1998 instructing Esso to empty and test the station's fuel storage system for leaks, and Esso promptly complied. The EQB is an administrative agency created by the Environmental Public Policy Act, 12 L.P.R.A. §§ 1121 — 1140a, to promote environmental and resource conservation. It has the authority to issue Orders to Do, such as the one directed at Esso, mandating compliance with environmental statutes and regulations. 4 The EQB issued a second order in September 1998 directing Esso and Rodriguez to engage in additional testing and to submit a soil remediation plan for the land. Esso again complied. According to Esso, the special committee charged with enforcing the EQB's UST program did not respond to Esso's submission, hampering its ability to investigate environmental conditions at the station and to take corrective measures. Esso also alleges that Rodriguez and his consultant, Carlos Belgodere Pamies (Belgodere), further delayed the process by restricting its access to the station. 5 The EQB issued a third order in October 1999, superseding and expanding on the second order. Esso claims that it has substantially complied with the third order and, in the course of doing so, has recovered approximately 550 gallons of spilled fuel. That figure differs vastly from claims by Rodriguez and Belgodere of a 65,000 to 100,000 gallon spill. 6 Despite Esso's demonstrated willingness to comply with investigatory and remedial orders, the EQB issued a show cause order in May 2001 proposing a $75,960,000 fine against Esso. The fine, which is 5,000 times greater than the largest fine ever imposed by the EQB under its UST regulations, is based on Esso's alleged failure to promptly notify the EQB of a fuel release from the pre-1991 UST system and to remedy that release. Any fine that the EQB collects will be deposited into a discretionary account administered by the EQB and disbursed by its chairman. 12 L.P.R.A. § 1136(f), (k). The $76 million proposed fine is twice the EQB's annual operating budget. 7 The district court acknowledged testimony by Miguel Morales, a supervising attorney of the EQB's legal affairs office, that he was surprised by the amount of the proposed fine because the EQB imposed either no fine or a fine of less than $100,000 in other spill cases. Morales also noted that some of the information included in the show cause order appears to have been provided by Belgodere, Rodriguez's consultant. Esso contends that Belgodere has been granted undue influence throughout this matter. The show cause order did not propose to sanction Rodriguez, despite an EQB examiner's recommendation that it do so because he controlled the UST in his role as the station operator.