South Carolina Code 48-56-30. Administration of pilot program; cooperative agreements
(1) identify the facility, the activities, and the pollutants that are covered by the cooperative agreement;
Terms Used In South Carolina Code 48-56-30
- Cooperative agreement: means an agreement entered into under § 48-56-30. See South Carolina Code 48-56-20
- Department: means the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control. See South Carolina Code 48-56-20
- Environmental management system: means an organized set of procedures implemented by the owner or operator of a facility that is based on standards issued by the International Organization for Standardization or an alternative management system or program that is acceptable to the South Carolina Environmental Excellence Program and the department and is designed to evaluate the environmental performance of the facility and to achieve measurable or noticeable improvements in that environmental performance through planning and changes in the facility's operations. See South Carolina Code 48-56-20
- Facility: means any site, including all buildings, equipment, and structures located on a single parcel or on contiguous parcels that are owned or operated by the same person, a manufacturing or natural resource management operation, or any business or local government activity that is regulated under any provision of South Carolina environmental law. See South Carolina Code 48-56-20
- Innovative environmental approaches: means procedures, practices, technologies, or systems that are designed to achieve superior environmental performance when applied by doing one or more of the following:
(a) achieving emissions reductions or reductions in discharges of waste that exceed otherwise applicable statutory and regulatory requirements;
(b) providing for alternative monitoring, testing, recordkeeping, notification, or reporting requirements that reduce the administrative burden on the department or the participant and providing the information needed to ensure compliance with the cooperative agreement and other applicable provisions of South Carolina environmental law; or
(c) achieving natural resource conservation or reductions in the use of natural resources or energy consumption. See South Carolina Code 48-56-20 - Performance evaluation: means a systematic, documented, and objective review, conducted by or on behalf of the owner or operator of a facility, of the environmental operations of the facility, including an evaluation of compliance with the cooperative agreement covering the facility, approvals that are not replaced by the cooperative agreement and the provisions of South Carolina environmental law for which a participant has not been granted a variance. See South Carolina Code 48-56-20
- Pollution: means :
(a) the presence in the environment of any substance including, but not limited to, sewage, industrial waste, other waste, air contaminant, or any combination of these in a quantity and of characteristics and duration:
(i) as may cause or tend to cause the environment of the State to be contaminated, unclean, noxious, odorous, impure, or degraded;
(ii) which is or tends to be injurious to human health or welfare;
(iii) which damages property, plant, animal or marine life or use of property; or
(b) the manmade or man-induced alteration of the chemical, physical, biological, and radiological integrity of water. See South Carolina Code 48-56-20 - South Carolina environmental law: means all state and federal environmental laws and regulations that the department is authorized to administer and enforce. See South Carolina Code 48-56-20
(2) specify any approvals and provisions of approvals that are replaced by the cooperative agreement;
(3) commit the participant to implement an environmental management system at the covered facility and commit the participant to document performance under the environmental management system;
(4) commit the participant to demonstrated superior environmental performance that exceeds requirements of South Carolina environmental law, to achieve measurable or noticeable improvements in its environmental operations, to reduce natural resource or energy consumption, and to reduce waste generation;
(5) specify waste reduction goals in measurable and verifiable terms;
(6) identify changes in raw materials, approaches of production, distribution or uses of products or in the reuse, recycling, or disposal of materials that the participant will implement to achieve process efficiencies, to reduce the pollution of the air, water, and land and to reduce the use of energy or natural resources or indoor chemical exposure;
(7) contain pollution limits that are measurable, verifiable, enforceable, and at least as stringent as the pollution limits under South Carolina environmental law;
(8) describe the innovative environmental approaches and any variances granted to the participant;
(9) list the requirements that would be included in any approvals that are replaced by the cooperative agreement;
(10) require the participant to submit a performance evaluation within 180 days of the date that the cooperative agreement is effective and to periodically update the performance evaluation as specified in the cooperative agreement;
(11) require the participant to report any violations discovered during a performance evaluation as required in § 48-56-130;
(12) ensure that members of the interested persons group, established as required under § 44-56-60, have the opportunity to review and comment on the participant’s draft cooperative agreement and the participant’s performance under the cooperative agreement;
(13) require the participant to provide information to the interested persons group and to the public about the participant’s environmental performance and the results of the project, including environmental, social, and economic impacts and to meet with the interested persons group at least once every 6 months to discuss the implementation of the participant’s cooperative agreement and to receive comments on the progress of the project;
(14) require the participant to assess the success of the project in reducing the time and money spent by the participant on paperwork and other administrative activities that do not directly benefit the environment;
(15) specify that the term of the agreement is up to 5 years with the possibility of one renewal for up to 5 years.