The operator of a company had a permit for mining in accordance with the provisions od the Environmental Code. In August 2005, a change was made in the environmental legislation and holders of these permits were required to submit an environmental report yearly to the regulatory authority. When he did not submit a report for that year, the regulatory authority required the operator to make a penalty payment unless he submitted the environmental report within three weeks. The operator did neither submit the report nor make the penalty payment. Later the same year, the County Administrative Board imposed an environmental sanction charge for the same failure.

When appealed to the Environmental Court of Appeal, the question was whether or not the County Administrative Board had been right to impose an environmental sanction charge when there had already been imposed a penalty for the same failure.

The Environmental Court of Appeal came to the conclusion that the two sanctions fill different purposes, one is an administrative sanction while the other is tied to the supervision of operators. Thus, the operator had to make both payments and no adjustment would be made of the sums.