EPA Federal Civil Penalties Assessed (Quarterly)

## What this measures

The total federal civil penalty, in U.S. dollars, in the EPA enforcement cases that reached a final order in each calendar quarter.

## Why it matters

Penalties are the price of environmental violations. Totals are set by a few large settlements (oil spills, vehicle emissions), so the series shows when the biggest cases close and how large federal penalties are.

## How to read it

Higher means more penalty dollars. A single case can dominate a quarter: the BP Deepwater Horizon consent decree sets the second quarter of 2016 and Volkswagen’s emissions case the second quarter of 2017. Compare medians across years rather than single quarters.

## What it does not say

Only federal civil cases are here: state environmental agencies bring most enforcement and are not counted, nor are criminal cases. Counts follow EPA’s priorities and staffing as much as industry behavior. Cases are dated by when they reached a final order, which can be years after the violation. The figure is the penalty assessed, not collected, and excludes the cost of required compliance work and supplemental projects.

## How it's built

Sum of each case’s federal penalty (CASE_PENALTIES.FED_PENALTY) over the cases dated in the quarter (see epa.enforcement.cases for dating). History from 2010.

## Source

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO), ICIS federal enforcement and compliance case download (echo.epa.gov/files/echodownloads/case_downloads.zip), refreshed weekly by EPA; U.S. government work. Refreshed weekly by /api/cron/risk-events-sync?source=epa_echo.