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Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter
RECALLED
April 13, 2000
H. 3741
S. Printed 4/13/00--S.
Read the first time March 14, 2000.
TO AMEND CHAPTER 2 OF TITLE 48, CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION FUND, BY ADDING ARTICLE 3 SO AS TO ENACT THE ENVIRONMENTAL EMERGENCY FUND ACT WHICH CREATES THE "ENVIRONMENTAL EMERGENCY FUND", DEFINES ENVIRONMENTAL EMERGENCIES, REQUIRES THAT ALL FINES AND PENALTIES COLLECTED BY THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL, NOT OTHERWISE DESIGNATED, TO BE CREDITED TO THE FUND, ESTABLISHES A TWO HUNDRED FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLAR CAP FOR THE FUND, AND PROVIDES FOR USE OF THESE FUNDS; TO AMEND SECTION 58-5-720 RELATING TO THE FILING OF BONDS OF CERTIFICATES OF DEPOSIT BEFORE APPROVAL OF CONSTRUCTION OR OTHER WORK ON WATER OR SEWER SYSTEMS SO AS TO INCREASE THE AMOUNT OF THE BOND FROM A MINIMUM OF TEN THOUSAND DOLLARS TO TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS AND A MAXIMUM OF FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS TO ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS; TO DESIGNATE SECTIONS 48-2-10 THROUGH 48-2-90 AS ARTICLE 1, CHAPTER 2, TITLE 48 ENTITLED ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION FUND; TO RENAME CHAPTER 2 OF TITLE 48, AS ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION FUNDS.
Whereas, the General Assembly finds that:
(1) Environmental emergencies occur which require immediate and comprehensive response from the State to deter pollution and protect the public's health.
(2) Existing response capabilities are limited and do not provide an instrument for exigencies that may require an immediate availability of funds for certain activities which do not fall into any existing program.
(3) The utilization of environmental penalties for such a fund represents a sound fiscal and conscientious use of limited funds for immediate threats to the environment and public health. Now, therefore,
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:
SECTION 1. Chapter 2, Title 48 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
Section 48-2-310. This article may be cited as the 'Environmental Emergency Fund Act'.
Section 48-2-320. As used in this article:
(1) 'Commissioner' means the Commissioner of the Department of Health and Environmental Control;
(2) 'Department' means the Department of Health and Environmental Control;
(3) 'Environmental Emergency' means a situation, to be determined by the commissioner, that constitutes an immediate threat to the environment or public health, or both, and providing immediate, but temporary relief to the situation may require the expenditure of funds to effect a solution, provide temporary relief, or retain the services of appropriate technical personnel or contractors;
(4) 'Fund' means the 'Environmental Emergency Fund' established pursuant to this article;
(5) 'Responsible party' means a person determined to be legally responsible for any environmental pollution or threat to public health which requires expenditures from the fund.
Section 48-2-330. (A) There is created within the Department of Health and Environmental Control a restricted account to be known as the Environmental Emergency Fund.
(B) The fund must be financed through the collection and deposit of fines and penalties levied by the department. However, a fine or penalty collected under any statute which provides explicitly for distribution of the fine or penalty, other than to the general fund including, but not limited to, those penalties distributed to the counties pursuant to Section 48-1-350, must not be deposited in the fund.
(C) Fines and penalties must be credited to the fund until the fund reaches two hundred fifty thousand dollars, at which time all subsequent fines and penalties must be deposited to the general fund or as otherwise prescribed by law. At no time shall the balance in the fund exceed two hundred fifty thousand dollars, and no more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars may be deposited to the fund in any fiscal year.
(D) Interest accruing to the fund must be remitted to the general
fund of the State.
Section 48-2-340. (A) The department, through the commissioner or the commissioner's designee, shall certify that funding for a specific emergency was necessary to protect the environment or public health, or both. Annually, the department shall prepare an independent accounting of all revenue in the fund. The report must be submitted to the chairman of the Board of the Department of Health and Environmental Control and must be made available to the public upon request.
(B) Nothing in this section precludes the department from seeking appropriate enforcement action, including civil penalties and recovery of costs expended from the fund, against a party determined to be responsible for the environmental emergency. Costs recovered pursuant to an enforcement action must be deposited in the fund in accordance with the limitation prescribed in Section 48-2-330."
SECTION 2. Section 58-5-720 of the 1976 Code is amended to read:
"Section 58-5-720. The commission shall hereafter, prior to the granting of authority or consent to any water or sewer utility regulated by the commission, for the construction, operation, maintenance, acquisition, expansion, or improvement of any facility or system, prescribe as a condition to such the consent or approval that the utility shall file with the commission a bond with sufficient surety, as shall be is approved by the commission, in an amount not less than ten twenty-five thousand dollars and not more than fifty one hundred thousand dollars payable to the commission and conditioned upon the provision by the utility of adequate and sufficient service within its service area or deliver to the commission certificates of deposit, with such endorsement endorsements as required by the commission, of federal or state chartered banks or savings and loan associations who maintain an office in this State and whose accounts are insured by either the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation. Such These certificates of deposit shall may not exceed the amount covered by insurance. The commission shall have has the right, upon notice and hearing, to declare all or any part of the bond or certificate of deposit forfeited upon a determination by the commission that the utility shall have wilfully failed to provide such the service without just cause or excuse and that such the failure has continued for an unreasonable length of time. A further condition of such the bond or certificate of deposit shall be is the provision for payment to the commission of any fine or penalty imposed or assessed by the commission against the utility under the provisions of Section 58-5-710."
SECTION 3. Sections 48-2-10 through 48-2-90 are designated as
Article 1, Chapter 2, Title 48 of the 1976 Code and entitled "Environmental Protection Fund". Chapter 2, Title 48 of the 1976 Code is renamed "Environmental Protection Funds".
SECTION 4. The Code Commissioner shall change all references in Article 1, Chapter 2, Title 48 of the 1976 Code, as designated in Section 2 of this act, from Chapter to Article and shall change other cross references from Chapter 2, Title 48 to Article 1, Chapter 2, Title 48 when these changes are economically and practically feasible.
SECTION 5. The amendment to Section 58-5-720 of the 1976 Code, as contained in Section 2 of this act, takes effect upon the South Carolina Public Service Commission promulgating the appropriate regulations necessary to implement Section 58-5-720.
SECTION 6. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.
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