In re Appeal from Civil Penalty Assessed for Violations of Sedimentation Pollution Control Act Administered

This appeal arises from an attempt by the Department of Natural Resources and Community Development (the ""Department"") to assess a civil penalty against petitioners for violations of the Sedimentation Pollution Control Act of 1973 (the ""Act""). See N.C.G.S. Sec. 113A-50 et seq. (1983). The administrative record tends to show petitioners Harris and Hall own and have subdivided an approximately eighteen acre tract of land in Caldwell County, North Carolina. In enlarging a subdivision of this tract, petitioners allegedly disturbed approximately two and one-half acres of land by grading, cutting and filling in order to construct a street. Petitioners had previously paid the Department civil penalties in connection with earlier phases of the subdivision's development. Subsequent inspections by the Department revealed that petitioners continued to violate various requirements of the Act. The Department sent petitioners a Notice of Violation which specified the violations of the Act, the steps necessary to correct them, set a deadline for compliance and warned that a civil penalty could be imposed if the violations were not corrected. After the alleged violations were not corrected, the Department assessed a $4,200 civil penalty against petitioners pursuant to Section 113A-64 which provides in part: