At the end of the budget year the SERC shall submit a report to the Legislature detailing any fees collected pursuant to § 1-50-8 which are in excess of the amount appropriated for these purposes and request a budget appropriation to remit this amount to the local emergency planning committees in the form of grants to support emergency planning and community right–to–know activities at the local level. Grants shall be distributed according to the following schedule:

(1) An amount not to exceed sixteen thousand five hundred dollars shall be distributed equally to all active local emergency planning committees if the active committees have addressed the minimum requirements of the program including:

(a) Annually submit a membership roster which meets the requirements of this section to the SERC for approval;

(b) Elect officers and adopt bylaws;

(c) Hold regular meetings at least once per quarter;

(d) Develop a procedure to provide information to the public on request;

(e) Provide public notice of meetings and of the availability of right–to–know information;

(f) Submit a draft emergency response plan; and

(g) Exercise and update the plan as required; and

(2) Any additional excess funds shall be included in the next year’s legislative budget to be appropriated to be divided by the total number of facilities reporting statewide and the funds shall be disbursed to the local emergency planning committees on a per–facility basis.

Grants distributed under this program shall be expended by the local emergency planning committees to defray the expenses of operating the SARA title III program and for related SARA title I activities.

Source: SL 1992, ch 254, § 65; SDCL, § 34A-12-23; SL 1993, ch 257, § 1.