West Virginia Code 22-25-8 – Withdrawal, enforcement and termination from the program
(a) Any participant may elect to withdraw from participation in the program at any time upon written notice to the secretary.
Terms Used In West Virginia Code 22-25-8
- Environmental goals: means the environmental performance objectives proposed by a qualified applicant that demonstrates superior environmental performance and which may support variances from environmental laws. See West Virginia Code 22-25-3
- Environmental laws: means the following articles of chapter twenty-two of the Code of West Virginia, two thousand two, as amended: Four, five, eleven, twelve, fifteen, sixteen, seventeen and eighteen and legislative rules adopted under one of those articles, or a policy, rule, permit, license, other approval or order issued by the department under one of those articles. See West Virginia Code 22-25-3
- Environmental performance agreement: means an agreement entered into between the department and a participant of the program that specifies the participant'. See West Virginia Code 22-25-3
- Participant: means a qualified applicant that has been admitted into the environmental excellence program through the execution of an environmental performance agreement with the department. See West Virginia Code 22-25-3
- Program: means the environmental excellence program created pursuant to this article. See West Virginia Code 22-25-3
- Secretary: means the secretary of the Department of Environmental Protection. See West Virginia Code 22-25-3
- State: when applied to a part of the United States and not restricted by the context, includes the District of Columbia and the several territories, and the words "United States" also include the said district and territories. See West Virginia Code 2-2-10
(b) The secretary shall terminate the participation of any participant in the program if a serious violation is discovered or occurs and the violation is not properly disclosed in accordance with the law or is not corrected or remedied in a timely manner to the satisfaction of the secretary.
(c) The secretary may continue the participation of a participant in the program if a serious violation is discovered or occurs and the violation is properly disclosed in accordance with law and is corrected or remedied in a timely manner to the satisfaction of the secretary.
(d) A participant's participation in the program shall be suspended from the time the serious violation is discovered or occurs until the time it is corrected or remedied to the satisfaction of the secretary.
(e) If the secretary determines at any time a participant is failing to perform in accordance with the environmental performance agreement, and if, after written notice to the participant, the participant does not come into conformance within a reasonable period of time, as established by the secretary, the secretary may terminate the participant's participation in the program.
(f) All incentives provided by the state pursuant to section nine of this article shall be withdrawn, effective upon termination or withdrawal of the participant's participation in the program. If a participant withdraws or is terminated from the program, any unused incentives will be forfeited.
(g) The secretary shall establish, by rule, procedures and criteria that set forth circumstances under which a participant's participation shall be suspended or terminated and criteria for a transition plan for returning to otherwise applicable environmental laws if the environmental performance agreement is terminated by the participant for any reason or by the secretary for failure to meet the agreement's stated environmental goals, despite good faith efforts.