- (a) The informal hearing officer and/or the appropriate committee and/or the State Plant Board will carefully review the documentation and hear cases of alleged violations.
- (b) Should it be determined a violation or violations have occurred, the severity and level of enforcement of each violation will be determined by the three (3) factors in Subpart 12 of this part, as they are applied to the Penalty Matrix, see Appendix A.
(c)
(1) If a violation is determined in this sequence, the following factors will be considered:
- (A) Cooperation of the respondent; and
- (B) Other extenuating/mitigating circumstances.
(2)
- (A) The hearing officer, committee, board may use these factors to accelerate or mitigate enforcement action.
- (B) When a civil penalty is the preferred action, the base penalty may be increased or decreased based on these factors.
- (C) The civil penalty will not be more or less than the range for the specific violation listed in Appendix A.
- (d) The board will take action to determine the final disposition of the case.