similar story - I worked for a company that made paper. Paer mills have power boilers with smoke stacks.
An EPA rule came in to put a certain type of particulate scrubber in on the smoke stack and monitor and report particulate and opacity regularly. Being the good citizens that we were, we put in TWO scrubbers for redundancy purposes even though only 1 was required. Reporting was done as required and opacity was always WAY below the specified limits.
However, the redundant scrubber had a mechanical issue so it was taken off line awaiting repairs. Reporting on the other continued and the stack’s opacity was still well within limits.
The EPA figured out, months later, that the redundant scrubber was off line.
Even though the smoke stack with the one specified scrubber was way under the upper limits and there had been regular reports reflecting that, they sued the company for not reporting the redundant scrubber was off line.
Sued as in $5M sued. And won.
A few years and a gazillion dollars in legal expenses, the company’s appeal was heard and the EPA’s usary fine was thrown out.
No matter how much you hate the EPA, you don’t hate them nearly enough.
The American government tends to viciously hate Americans. But sure do love them some ignoramuses from foreign s***hole countries.
That's because the Lefty stooges on the bench slow-walk these cases to run up your lawyer bills.