(A) The Department of Health and Environmental Control is empowered to implement and enforce the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980 (Public Law 96-510), and subsequent amendments to Public Law 96-510 as of the effective date of the amendments.

(B)(1) Subject to the provisions of Section 107 of Public Law 96-510 and its subsequent amendments which pursuant to this section are incorporated and adopted as the law of this State, the department is empowered to recover on behalf of the State all response costs expended from the Hazardous Waste Contingency Fund or from other sources, including specifically punitive damages in an amount at least equal to and not more than three times the amount of costs incurred by the State whether before or after the enactment of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, and its subsequent amendments.

(2) For purposes of this section, "owner" does not include:

(a) a unit of state or local government which acquired ownership or control involuntarily through bankruptcy, tax delinquency, abandonment, or other circumstances in which the government involuntarily acquires title by virtue of its function as sovereign, including acquisitions made by a forfeited land commission pursuant to Chapter 59, Title 12. The exclusion provided under this paragraph shall not apply to any state or local government which voluntarily acquires a facility or has caused or contributed to the release or threatened release of a hazardous substance from the facility, and such a state or local government shall be subject to the provisions of this chapter in the same manner and to the same extent, both procedurally and substantively, as any nongovernmental entity.

(b) a person otherwise liable who can establish by a preponderance of the evidence that the release or threat of release of a hazardous substance and the damages resulting therefrom were caused solely by:

(i) an act of God;

(ii) an act of war;

(iii) an act or omission of a third party other than an employee or agent of the defendant, or than one whose act or omission occurs in connection with a contractual relationship, existing directly or indirectly, with the defendant (except where the sole contractual arrangement arises from a published tariff and acceptance for carriage by a common carrier by rail), if the defendant establishes by a preponderance of the evidence that (A) he exercised due care with respect to the hazardous substance concerned, taking into consideration the characteristics of such hazardous substance, in light of all relevant facts and circumstances, and (B) he took precautions against foreseeable acts or omissions of any such third party and the consequences that could foreseeably result from such acts or omissions.

(3) For purposes of this chapter, the provisions of the Superfund Recycling Equity Act, 42 U.S.C. Section 9627, shall apply.

HISTORY: 1981 Act No. 178 Part II Section 11; 1992 Act No. 267, Section 1; 2000 Act No. 258, Section 3; 2017 Act No. 16 (S.181), Section 1, eff May 9, 2017.

Effect of Amendment

2017 Act No. 16, Section 1, added (B)(3), making the Federal Superfund Recycling Equity Act applicable to the South Carolina Hazardous Waste Management Act.