As used in this article:

(1) "Contaminated site" means any drycleaning facility or wholesale supply facility and surrounding area where drycleaning solvent has been deposited, stored, disposed of, released, placed, or otherwise come to be located; but does not include any consumer product in consumer use or any container. In order for a site to be a contaminated site it must have documented evidence of contamination from drycleaning solvent.

(2) "Department" means the Department of Health and Environmental Control.

(3) "Drycleaning facility" means a professional commercial establishment located in this State for the purpose of cleaning clothing and other fabrics utilizing a process that involves the use of drycleaning solvent. In the case of a retail establishment, the establishment is one that operates or has at sometime in the past operated in whole or in part for the purpose of cleaning clothing and other fabrics for members of the public, other drycleaning facilities, and dry drop-off facilities. In the case of a wholesale establishment, the establishment is one that operates or has at sometime in the past operated in whole or in part for the purpose of cleaning clothing and other fabrics for other drycleaning facilities or dry drop-off facilities. "Drycleaning facility" includes laundry facilities that are using or have used drycleaning solvent as part of their cleaning process but does not include textile mills, uniform rental and linen supply facilities, or drycleaning facilities owned or operated by a local, state, or federal government.

(4) "Drycleaning solvent" means nonaqueous solvents used in the cleaning of clothing and other fabrics and includes halogenated drycleaning fluids and nonhalogenated drycleaning fluids, and their breakdown products. "Drycleaning solvent" includes solvent that has been recycled for use at a drycleaning facility and applies only to those solvents used at a drycleaning facility or handled by a wholesale supply facility.

(5) "Dry drop-off facility" means a commercial retail business (including routes) that receives clothing and other fabrics, from customers, for drycleaning or laundering at an off-site drycleaning facility.

(6) "Employee" means a natural person employed and paid by the owner of a drycleaning facility for thirty-five or more hours a week for forty-five or more weeks a year and on whose behalf the owner contributes payments to the South Carolina Department of Employment and Workforce or Department of Revenue as required by law. Excluded from the meaning of the term "employee" are owners of drycleaning facilities and family members of owners, regardless of the level of consanguinity, if the family members are not employed and not compensated pursuant to the definition of the term "employee" contained in this item. Part-time employees who are employed and paid for fewer than thirty-five hours a week for fewer than forty-five weeks a year must not be deemed to be employees unless their hours and weeks of employment, when combined with the hours and weeks of employment of another or other part-time employee or employees, total thirty-five or more hours a week for forty-five or more weeks a year.

(7) "Existing drycleaning facility" means a drycleaning facility that started operation before November 24, 2004.

(8) "Former drycleaning facility" means a drycleaning facility that ceased to be operated as a drycleaning facility before July 1, 1995.

(9) "Fund" means Drycleaning Facility Restoration Trust Fund.

(10) "Halogenated drycleaning fluid" means any nonaqueous solvent formulated, in whole or in part, with ten percent or more by volume of any of the halogenated compounds including, but not limited to, chlorine, bromine, fluorine, or iodine. Halogenated drycleaning fluids include, but are not limited to, the known solvents perchloroethylene (also known as tetrachloroethylene or perc), n-propyl bromide, and any breakdown components of them.

(11) "New drycleaning facility" means a drycleaning facility that started operation on or after November 24, 2004.

(12) "Nonaqueous solvent" means any cleaning formulation designed to minimize swelling of fabric fibers and containing less than fifty-one percent of water by volume.

(13) "Nonhalogenated drycleaning fluid" means any nonaqueous solvent used in a drycleaning facility that contains less than ten percent by volume of any halogenated drycleaning fluid. Nonhalogenated drycleaning fluid includes petroleum based drycleaning solvents and any breakdown components of them.

(14) "Person" means an individual, partnership, corporation, association, trust, estate, receiver, company, limited liability company, or another entity or group.

(15) "Property owner" means a person who is vested with ownership, dominion, or legal or rightful title to the real property or who has a ground lease interest in the real property on which a drycleaning or wholesale supply facility is or has ever been located.

(16) "Release" means the accidental or intentional spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing into the environment of drycleaning solvent.

(17) "Route" means a commercial business that receives by mobile means clothing and other fabrics, from customers, for drycleaning or laundering at an off-site drycleaning facility.

(18) "Wholesale supply facility" means a commercial establishment that supplies drycleaning solvent to drycleaning facilities.

HISTORY: 1995 Act No. 119, Section 1; 2004 Act No. 237, Section 2, eff May 24, 2004; 2009 Act No. 14, Section 1, eff May 6, 2009; 2013 Act No. 30, Section 1, eff May 21, 2013.

Editor's Note

2004 Act No. 237, Section 11, provides in part as follows:

"The repeal or amendment of a code section by this act does not release or extinguish any tax, fee, interest, penalty, forfeiture, or liability for any period prior to the repeal or amendment. The repealed or amended code section or act must be treated as remaining in force for the purpose of sustaining any proper action or prosecution for the enforcement of the tax, fee, interest, penalty, forfeiture, or liability."