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1 daily penalty for 1461 days, yielding a total penalty of$146,100 pursuant to the Business & <br /> 2 Professions Code. <br /> 3 E. Circumstances Pertaining To Penalty <br /> 4 As previously briefed in the People's Trial Brief,the statutory maximum is the presumed <br /> 5 to be the appropriate penalty amount under the Water Code. Moreover,on the facts of this case, <br /> 6 justice requires the maximum penalty. Although penalties can be imposed simply on a strict <br /> 7 liability basis,these Defendants were negligent, in light of long awareness of the violations. In <br /> 8 fact, the longstanding, repetitive similar violations suggests a deliberate course of conduct by the <br /> 9 Defendants_ <br /> 10 The People believe that the failure to improve the property cannot be explained as mer <br /> 11 accident on Defendants' part. The Defendants testified that they were aware of the legal <br /> 12 requirements and the series of discharges.2' A strange pattern of delays and temporary low-cost <br /> 13 repairs is difficult to understand in light of the environmental consequences and effects upon <br /> • 14 their neighbors. Moreover, defendants were apparently aware that some improvements, such <br /> 15 roofs over their cows,would actually save them money, as Bruce Minbrough explained to Louis <br /> 16 Pratt and Robert Matteoli during summer, 1998. Curiously, the most expensive single <br /> 17 improvement to the dairy, a$21,000 pump, is portable personal property. <br /> 18 The stubborn refusal to make capital improvements is consistent with a plan to leave the <br /> 19 property in the near future. As Bruce Kimbrough told Mr. Atwal,he plans to move the dairy' <br /> 20 when Mountain House community is built. Thus the dairy,.which Joe.Machado allows his <br /> 21 daughter and son-in-law to operate, is merely a place holding strategy as real estate values rise_ <br /> 22 Improving the waste system by making permanent improvements at the dairy would benefit oily <br /> 23 <br /> 24 <br /> 24 . Defendants' combined experience in the dairy industry exceeds 97 years. Mr. <br /> 25 Pratt gave the regulations to the Kimbroughs. Joe J. Machado testified that he was aware of d e <br /> 26 governing laws, and in fact had been in litigation under those very laws. Bruce Kimbrough <br /> testified at his deposition that he has always "definitely" understood, including at the time of tie <br /> 27 1982 discharge, that wastewater cannot leave the dairy. [Exh. 19,p. 2201 <br /> The evidence showed that the Kimbroughs lived very close to the intersection where s <br /> 28 many witnessed discharges. In a telling conversation when Mr. Atwal confronted Mr. <br /> Kimbrough, Mr. Kimbrough told Atwal to "file a complaint, everybody else has" <br />