DEP writes summonses across five unrelated sets of rules, and they behave nothing alike.
Idling cannot be fixed at all. A backflow report can drop from $500 to $50. Noise has a real zero-fine option. There is no general DEP policy to lean on. The answer is per charge.
The price lists have moved out of OATH’s rules and now sit with DEP:
| Subject | Rule |
|---|---|
| Air: idling, dust, boilers, mould | 15 RCNY ch. 43 |
| Noise | 15 RCNY § 47-02 |
| Asbestos | 15 RCNY § 53-02 |
| Community Right-to-Know | 15 RCNY § 54-02 |
| Water and backflow | 15 RCNY § 65-01, new as of 1 August 2025 |
Idling
The charge is § 24-163. The dollar range is in § 24-178, running from $350 to $2,000. The set amounts are the same whether or not you were near a school:
| First | Second | Third or more | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fine | $350 | $440 | $600 |
| If you don’t show up | $1,000 | $1,500 | $2,000 |
The first offence amount is exactly the legal minimum. The no-show amounts run all the way to the legal maximum.
There is no way to fix it, and there never was. DEP’s own reasoning is that correcting it “is meaningless because of the ephemeral nature of vehicular idling.” In plain terms, the engine is already off by the time anyone could check. That is why there is no deal on offer, and why the rule instead lets you admit it and pay online.
The repeat window went from two years to three. And it counts the same person and the same vehicle.
The rule says “no person shall cause or permit” it. That reaches the driver and also an owner or fleet manager who lets it happen.
A member of the public can write it, and keep half
Fleet operators do not expect this one. Administrative Code § 24-182 lets any member of the public file a complaint. Then:
- If DEP does not serve a summons within 45 days, the person who complained can serve it themselves and file the case at OATH.
- If DEP brings the case, the complainant gets 25% of the fine.
- If the complainant brings it, they get 50%.
There is a limit worth knowing. For idling, public complaints only reach buses and trucks. And there is no weight limit in the rule. The 10,000 lb figure that circulates online is not in it. The offence itself still applies to every vehicle. The limit is on who is allowed to complain.
Backflow prevention
The rule you break is § 20-04. The fine comes from § 65-01.
| Charge | Fine | If you don’t show |
|---|---|---|
| No device installed, or no first test report | $700 | $1,000 |
| No yearly test report | $500 | $1,000 |
| Device removed or bypassed without approval | $700 | $1,000 |
The yearly report has the best break in the category. File the report by your first hearing date and $500 drops to $50, on a first summons.
Call it a reduction, not a fix. The difference is real and it changes what you file.
Mould
Charged under § 24-154(b):
| First | Second | Third or more | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fine | $800 | $1,600 | $2,400 |
| If you don’t show up | $1,000 | $5,000 | $10,000 |
Look at how far the no-show column runs past the fine column. Of everything DEP writes, this is where skipping the hearing hurts most.
It covers buildings with 10 or more apartments, or a lot with 25,000+ square feet of non-residential space. It reaches jobs over 10 square feet. Licensing sits under state labour law.
Boilers and dust
Both sit in the same air-code schedule and both run on two tiers. Stipulating does not reduce either one: the stipulation amount is the same as the fine.
| Charge | First | Second | Third | If you don’t show up |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boilers, AC § 24-109(a)(1) to (2) | $800 | $1,600 | $2,400 | $3,200 |
| Boilers, AC § 24-109(a)(3) to (17), (f) to (i) | $400 | $800 | $1,200 | $1,600 |
| Dust, AC § 24-146(e) to (f) | $800 | $1,600 | $2,400 | $3,200 |
| Dust, AC § 24-146(b) to (d) | $400 | $800 | $1,200 | $1,600 |
The first-offence figure is the statutory minimum and the no-show figure is the statutory maximum, exactly as with idling. Current as amended 15 January 2025.
Noise
Noise from a property has a real fix. There is a zero fine for admitting a first offence if proof of compliance reaches DEP within 30 days of the summons, unless they extend it. Several rows on the noise list show a reduction of zero.
Vehicle noise is the opposite. No fix window, because the violation is a finished event. And it is not cheap:
| Motor vehicle noise, AC § 24-236(e) | First | Second | Third |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fine | $800 | $1,700 | $2,500 |
| If you don’t show up | $875 | $1,750 | $2,625 |
Those took effect 31 May 2026. Be careful what you are quoted here: figures of $220, $440 and $880 circulate widely, including from search engines. Those came from the 2021 proposed rule and were never what you pay today. DEP’s own published noise schedule PDF is also stale and omits this charge entirely.
Construction noise plans are required under §§ 24-219 and 24-221.
Not showing up, and a fee people miss
DEP sets the no-show price row by row, not with one blanket rule. Idling is $1,000 / $1,500 / $2,000. Mould is $1,000 / $5,000 / $10,000. Nearly every water row is $1,000.
On top of that, there is a $30 late fee if you do not mail payment within 30 days of the date they mailed the no-show order. It appears on both the water and noise lists and it is easy to miss.
What changed recently
30 March 2025. The noise and Right-to-Know lists were updated to match Local Law 151 of 2023. The steam whistle entry was dropped as obsolete, and the first offence minimum for three rules was cut from $500 to $100.
1 August 2025. The water price list was created. The asbestos list gained five new rows, including abatement without air monitoring at $4,800 first and $9,600 second.
31 May 2026. A new construction noise monitoring rule. Sites of 200,000 square feet or more, within 50 feet of a home, working after hours on 30 or more days, have to install noise monitors and send DEP data every hour. All-affordable-housing projects and emergency work are exempt.