S E N A T E A M E N D M E N T

   AMENDMENT NO. _____

MURPHY/CHANDLER

CREATEDATE \@ "MMMM d, yyyy" \* MERGEFORMAT April 23, 2026

ADOPTED		TABLED	CARRIED OVER	FAILED	RECONSIDERED

Clerk of the Senate

   ADOPTION NO. _____

BILL NO: H.5126  (Reference is to Printer's Date 04/21/26-S.)

04572000

 Senator BLACKMON proposes the following amendment (5126R018.CM.AB.DOCX):

 Amend the bill, as and if amended, Part IB, Section 55, DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES, page 428, after line 24, by adding an appropriately numbered new proviso to read:

/ (DES: Commercial Data Center Water Use Reporting) (A) With funds appropriated in the current fiscal year to the Department of Environmental Services for Water Management, the department shall require a commercial data center that consumes three million or more gallons of water per month to report to the department, by January thirty-first, the source and monthly volume of surface water, groundwater, or other water utilized during the prior calendar year and the anticipated volume of water to be utilized during the current fiscal year.

 (B) The department shall make these reports publicly available and may audit the reports and any supporting data; provided, however, the department gives at least thirty days' notice prior to commencing an audit. The department may assess a civil penalty of up to ten thousand dollars for each day after January thirty-first that a required report is not filed and may assess a civil penalty of up to ten thousand dollars for any inaccurate, misleading, or false information contained in a report.

 (C) For purposes of the proviso, "data center" means a facility, campus of facilities, or array of electronically interconnected facilities under a single electric supply agreement in this State used by an entity or other business enterprise to operate, manage, or maintain a computer, group of computers, or other organized assembly of hardware and software for the primary purpose of storing, retrieving, or transmitting data that has a peak demand of fifty megawatts or greater, and that executes an electric service agreement with an electric service provider after December 31, 2026. For purposes of calculating peak demand under this definition, peak demand shall be determined according to the agreement between the energy user and the electric service provider, and the possibility or occurrence of energy usage which temporarily exceeds fifty megawatts shall not cause a data center to fall under this definition where contractual peak demand is less than fifty megawatts. The term "data center" does not include any computing or data infrastructure that is incidental or ancillary to the primary business operations of any facility whose primary services are not data storage, management, processing, or transmission, any facility owned or operated by a telecommunications company as defined in S.C. Code Section 58-9-2200, or any facility that primarily support telecommunications service or network operations. /

 Renumber sections to conform.

 Amend sections, totals and title to conform.