Reference is to the bill as introduced.
Amend the bill, as and if amended, by striking all after the enacting words and inserting:
/SECTION 1. Chapter 1, Title 48 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:
"Section 48-1-95.
(A) As used in this section:
(1)
'Action plan' or 'plan' means a schedule for implementing
and completing repairs, upgrades, and improvements needed to
minimize future repetitive significant spills of untreated or
partially treated domestic sewage.
(2)
'Capacity, Management, Operation, and Maintenance or
'CMOM' plan' means a comprehensive, dynamic framework for
wastewater utilities to identify and incorporate widely accepted
wastewater industry practices to:
(a)
better manage, operate, and maintain collection
systems;
(b)
investigate capacity constrained areas of the collection
system; and
(c)
respond to sanitary sewer overflow events.
(3)
'Comprehensive review' or 'review' means a complete
technical assessment of the components and operation of a sewage
system or its treatment works that are contributing to, or may
be contributing to, repetitive significant spills of untreated
or partially treated domestic sewage.
(4)
'Department' means the Department of Health and
Environmental Control.
(5)
'Significant spill' means a net discharge from a
wastewater utility of at least five thousand gallons of
untreated or partially treated domestic sewage that could cause
a serious adverse impact on the environment or public health.
'Significant spill' does not include spills caused by a natural
disaster, direct act of a third party, or other act of God.
(6)
'Wastewater utility' or 'utility' means the operator or
owner of a sewage collection system or its treatment works
providing sewer service to the public. 'wastewater utility'
does not include manufacturers, electric utilities, agricultural
operations, and wastewater treatment systems located on property
owned by the federal government.
(B) Utilities must
notify the department of any significant spill orally within
twenty-four hours and by written submission within five
days.
(C) Upon receiving
notice of a significant spill from a wastewater utility, the
department must determine whether the responsible wastewater
utility has had more than two significant spills per one hundred
miles of its sewage collection system, in the aggregate and
excluding private service laterals, during the twelve-month
period up to and including the date of the significant
spill.
(D)(1) If the
wastewater utility has had more than two significant spills per
one hundred miles of its aggregate collection system miles
during a twelve month period, the department shall issue an
order directing the utility to complete a comprehensive review
of the sewage system and treatment works facility identified
pursuant to subsection (C), or if the wastewater utility has a
department approved Capacity, Management, Operations, and
Maintenance plan in place directing the utility to update this
plan, the order must include, but is not limited to:
(a)
the submission of the findings of the comprehensive review
or CMOM update;
(b)
the required implementation of any plans to minimize the
recurrence of such significant spills.
(2)
The comprehensive review or update to an approved CMOM,
pursuant to subsection (D)(1), must be performed by a licensed
South Carolina professional engineer.
(3)
Unless the department's order is being appealed, the
comprehensive review or CMOM update must be initiated by the
wastewater utility's owner within two months of receiving an
order from the department or, in the case of an appeal, within
two months from the date the order becomes final and
nonappealable.
(E) The department
shall require that all wastewater utilities provide public
notice of any significant spill of five thousand gallons or more
within twenty-four house of the discovery. Where the
responsible wastewater utility does not provide this notice, in
addition to any enforcement response, the department shall
provide public notice of the significant spill.
(F) Nothing in this
section contravenes the department's ability to undertake
enforcement action under the Pollution Control Act, Chapter 1,
Title 48, or any other state or federal law."
SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor./
Renumber sections to conform.
Amend title to conform.