South Carolina General Assembly
110th Session, 1993-1994

Bill 3824


Indicates Matter Stricken
Indicates New Matter


                    Current Status

Introducing Body:               House
Bill Number:                    3824
Primary Sponsor:                Canty
Committee Number:               20
Type of Legislation:            GB
Subject:                        Environmental Equity Act of
                                1993
Residing Body:                  House
Current Committee:              Agriculture, Natural
                                Resources, and Environmental
                                Affairs
Computer Document Number:       436/11198AC.93
Introduced Date:                19930401
Last History Body:              House
Last History Date:              19930401
Last History Type:              Introduced, read first time,
                                referred to Committee
Scope of Legislation:           Statewide
All Sponsors:                   Canty
                                Rogers
                                G. Brown
                                Neal
                                Keyserling
                                Whipper
                                Waites
                                Scott
                                J. Brown
                                Cobb-Hunter
                                McElveen
                                McLeod
                                Kennedy
Type of Legislation:            General Bill



History


Bill  Body    Date          Action Description              CMN  Leg Involved
____  ______  ____________  ______________________________  ___  ____________

3824  House   19930401      Introduced, read first time,    20
                            referred to Committee

View additional legislative information at the LPITS web site.


(Text matches printed bills. Document has been reformatted to meet World Wide Web specifications.)

A BILL

TO AMEND THE CODE OF LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, BY ADDING CHAPTER 57, TITLE 44 SO AS TO ENACT THE "ENVIRONMENTAL EQUITY ACT OF 1993"; TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL TO IDENTIFY ENVIRONMENTAL HIGH RISK AREAS CONTAINING HIGH LEVELS OF TOXIC CHEMICALS; TO AUTHORIZE TOXIC CHEMICAL USER FEES AND TO ESTABLISH A TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE GRANT PROGRAM; TO REQUIRE THE DEPARTMENT TO REPORT SIGNIFICANT ADVERSE IMPACTS OF TOXIC CHEMICAL ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION ON HUMAN HEALTH AND TO RECOMMEND MEANS TO CORRECT THESE ADVERSE IMPACTS; AND TO REQUIRE THAT A FACILITY SITING DEMOGRAPHIC DESCRIPTION MUST BE SUBMITTED WITH AN APPLICANT SEEKING APPROVAL FOR SITING A TOXIC CHEMICAL FACILITY AND THAT THE SITING MAY NOT BE APPROVED IF IT DOES NOT CONFORM TO THE PURPOSES AND REQUIREMENTS OF THIS CHAPTER.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South Carolina:

SECTION 1. This act may be cited as the "Environmental Equity Act of 1993".

SECTION 2. Title 44 of the 1976 Code is amended by adding:

"CHAPTER 57

Environmental Equity

Section 44-57-10. This chapter may be cited as `The Environmental Equity Act'.

Section 44-57-20. As used in this chapter:

(1) `Environmental high risk area' or `high risk area' means a tract with the highest toxicity of chemicals present in the most recent five-year period using the most recent data as compiled by the Department of Health and Environmental Control and the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxic Release Inventory.

(2) `Tract' means an area identified and designated in the State by the U. S. Census Bureau in the latest Census available.

(3) `Toxic chemicals' includes:

(a) hazardous substances defined in Section 101(14) of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980;

(b) a pollutant for which air quality standards have been issued pursuant to the Clean Air Act;

(c) a pollutant for which water quality standards have been issued pursuant to the Clean Water Act;

(d) materials registered pursuant to the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act; and

(e) substances subject to reporting requirements pursuant to the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

(4) `Toxic chemical facility' or `facility' means a facility that stores, uses, processes, treats, disposes, or releases a toxic chemical that is subject to a permit, inspection or review, or registration requirement under state law or these federal laws: the Solid Waste Disposal Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act, the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act, the Occupational Safety and Health Act Hazard Communication Standard, or a facility subject to the reporting obligations under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

Section 44-57-30. The purposes of this chapter are to:

(1) collect data on and assess the effects of toxic chemicals on human health so that impacts on different individuals and groups can be understood;

(2) identify those areas that are subject to the highest concentrations of toxic chemicals;

(3) ensure that groups or individuals residing in an area impacted by toxic chemicals may have access to information to enhance public awareness and to facilitate public participation relative to the presence and remediation of these chemicals in the area;

(4) curtail activities found to have a significant adverse impact on human health in those areas of highest impact; and

(5) ensure that significant adverse health impacts that may be associated with toxic chemical environmental pollution are not distributed inequitably or in a discriminatory manner.

Section 44-57-40. (A) The Department of Health and Environmental Control shall promulgate in regulation, pursuant to the Administrative Procedures Act, a list of tracts in rank order of the toxicity of chemicals in each tract during the most recent five years that data is available with adjustments to account for relative toxicity and distinctions made for chemicals that are stored, used, processed, treated, disposed, or released. The one hundred tracts with the highest toxicity of chemicals are designated as high risk areas. The department biennially shall review and, if necessary, revise the list of tracts and the high risk areas.

(B) The regulations also shall contain the methods by which these toxicity calculations are to be computed, including the assumptions to be used when the precise concentrations of toxic chemicals are not known and the criteria to be used to account for relative toxicity.

(C) The department biennially shall review and, if necessary, revise the list of tracts contained in regulation and promulgated pursuant to subsection (A).

Section 44-57-50. The department shall establish in regulation toxic chemical user fees to be assessed against toxic facilities in environmental high risk areas in the State. These fees must be remitted to the State Treasurer to be held separate and distinct in an interest-bearing account, the interest from which must be attributed to this account to fund the grant program established pursuant to Section 44-57-60.

Section 44-57-60. The department shall establish a grant program to be funded by the user fees provided for in Section 44-57-50 for the purpose of awarding technical assistance grants. These grants are to enable individuals, citizens groups, and governmental agencies in high risk areas to obtain an independent study of the impact of a toxic chemical facility in the area so as to provide this information to the public and to facilitate public participation, as provided for in the Adminiatrative Procedures Act, in the development of regulations including, but not limited to, the development of procedures and methods for computations used to identify high risk areas and used in the review and remediation of adverse health impacts affected by environmental pollution related to toxic chemical facilities. Only one grant may be given at one time to a single high risk area.

Section 44-57-70. The department's Office of Minority Health annually shall report to the General Assembly on the nature and extent, if any, of acute and chronic impacts on human health in environmental high risk areas as compared to other tracts in the State. These impacts shall include, but are not limited to, cancer, birth deformities, infant mortality rates, and respiratory diseases. The report shall seek to:

(1) isolate the impacts of environmental pollution related to the presence of toxic chemical facilities in the area;

(2) segregate the effects of other factors, such as health care availability and substance abuse;

(3) rank the relative risks posed by toxic chemicals present in environmental high risk areas and by the varied sources of toxic chemicals, both individually and cumulatively;

(4) take into account the need to remedy the impacts of toxic chemical pollution in high risk areas; and

(5) evaluate the levels below which the storage, use, processing, treatment, disposal, or release of toxic chemicals, either individually or cumulatively, must be reduced to avoid adverse impacts on human health.

Section 44-57-80. (A) If the Office of Minority Health report required under Section 44-57-70 identifies significant adverse impacts of toxic chemical environmental pollution on human health in environmental high risk areas as a group, within six months of this report being submitted, the Department of Health and Environmental Control shall submit to the General Assembly legislative recommendations to remedy and prevent these impacts. These recommendations shall include, but are not limited to:

(1) expansion of the facilities or toxic chemicals subject to this chapter;

(2) the means to redress regulatory loopholes that may inadvertently or otherwise exempt chemicals and facilities from the purview of this chapter;

(3) measures such as taxes or restrictions in environmental high risk areas on toxic chemical activities subject to this chapter, regardless of whether facilities are in compliance with existing law.

(B) If the Office of Minority Health report identifies significant adverse impacts of toxic chemical environmental pollution on human health in an environmental high risk area, a moratorium must be imposed on siting or permitting a new facility in that area. The moratorium must be imposed until the department determines that a significant reduction in levels of these chemicals, as provided for in Section 48-57-70(5), has been attained in the high risk area.

Section 44-57-90. (A) As part of an application for a permit for the siting of a toxic chemical facility, the applicant shall submit a facility site demographics description to the department using only the most recently publicly available data provided by the United States Census Bureau and which must include:

(1) a breakdown of the population by race and ethnicity, percentages of persons under five years of age and of persons over sixty-five years of age, and the percent of persons below the federal poverty level;

(2) the census tract in which the facility is located;

(3) all contiguous census tracts;

(4) the county and municipality, if any, in which the facility is to be located.

(B) In determining whether to approve the toxic chemical facility siting, the department shall consider the demographics contained in the description and may not approve the siting if it does not conform to the purposes and requirements of this article.

(C) The facility site demographics description may be in the form of a one page chart and must be available to the public from the department."

SECTION 3. Within nine months of this act's effective date the department shall have initiated the process of promulgating regulations required by Chapter 57, Title 44, as added by Section 2 of this act.

SECTION 4. This act takes effect upon approval by the Governor.

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