(1) Any small community wishing to enter into an integrated environmental compliance agreement pursuant to section 25-19-105 shall submit to the department on or before July 1, 1998, an environmental priorities plan prepared in accordance with the provisions of this section; except that an environmental priorities plan may be submitted by a small community after July 1, 1998, if the department finds that the small community did not become aware of and could not have reasonably anticipated the environmental compliance concerns of the community in time to meet the deadline of July 1, 1998.

(2) An environmental priorities plan shall:

(a) Identify the environmental requirements enumerated in section 25-19-105 that pose an existing compliance problem or a near term compliance problem for the small community;

(b) Demonstrate the resource limitations that make it difficult for the small community to achieve and sustain compliance within the established statutory or regulatory deadlines;

(c) Set forth the small community's proposed environmental compliance priorities, including the identified actions to be taken, anticipated expenditures required for such actions, and a proposed schedule that would result in compliance with all individual environmental requirements as soon as practicable, within an overall period not to exceed ten years, without adversely impacting public health or the environment outside of the small community; and

(d) Describe the public process that has resulted in the formulation of the environmental compliance priorities for the small community.

(3) A small community participating in the program created by this article shall take reasonable steps to provide the public affected by its actions with a meaningful opportunity to participate in the preparation of an environmental priorities plan, through whatever combination of public meetings or hearings or opportunity for written input is most practical for the particular community.

(4) A small community participating in the program created by this article shall provide a copy of its proposed plan to any person who has so requested prior to the small community's submission of its plan to the department.

(5) The multimedia environmental integration advisory committee established pursuant to section 25-1-108 may, following notice to associations of political subdivisions eligible to participate in the program created by this article, develop guidance documents that provide more specific criteria for the preparation of an environmental priorities plan if the advisory committee determines that such criteria would further the purposes of this article.

(6) An environmental priorities plan submitted to the department shall be approved if the plan meets the requirements of this section and is consistent with any criteria for the preparation of such plans set forth in guidance documents developed by the multimedia environmental integration advisory committee.