1. (A) The fund must be used to rehabilitate sites that pose a significant threat to the public health, safety, or welfare. The department shall promulgate regulations to establish priorities for state-conducted rehabilitation at contaminated drycleaning facilities or wholesale supply facilities sites based upon factors that include, but are not limited to:

   1. (1) the degree to which human health, safety, or welfare may be affected by exposure to the contamination;
   2. (2) the size of the population or area affected by the contamination;
   3. (3) the present and future uses of the affected aquifer or surface waters, with particular consideration as to the probability that the contamination is substantially affecting or will migrate to and substantially affect a known public or private source of potable water; and
   4. (4) the effect of the contamination on the environment.

2. (B) Nothing in this subsection may be construed to restrict the department from modifying the priority status of a drycleaning facility or wholesale supply facility rehabilitation site where conditions warrant. Criteria for determining completion of site rehabilitation program tasks and site rehabilitation programs must be based upon the factors set forth in subsection (A)(1) and these factors:

   1. (1) individual site characteristics, including natural rehabilitation processes;
   2. (2) applicable state water quality standards;
   3. (3) whether deviation from state water quality standards or from established criteria is appropriate, based upon the degree to which the desired rehabilitation level is achievable and can be reasonably and cost-effectively implemented within available technologies or control strategies, except that, where a state water quality standard is applicable, the deviation may not result in the application of standards more stringent than the standard;
   4. (4) it is recognized that restoration of groundwater resources contaminated with certain drycleaning solvents, such as perchloroethylene, may not be achievable using currently available technology. In situations where available technology is not anticipated to meet water quality standards, the department, at its discretion, is encouraged to use innovative technology including, but not limited to, technology which has been field tested through the federal innovative technology program and which has engineering and cost data available;
   5. (5) nothing in this section may be construed to restrict the department from temporarily postponing completion of a site rehabilitation program for which drycleaning restoration funds are being expended whenever the postponement is considered necessary in order to make funds available for rehabilitation of a drycleaning facility or wholesale supply facility site with a higher priority status;
   6. (6) the department shall provide the rehabilitation of eligible drycleaning facilities and wholesale supply facilities consistent with this subsection. Nothing in this article subjects the department to liability for any action that may be required of the owner, operator, or person by a private party or a local, state, or federal governmental entity.
3. (C) The department may not expend more than two hundred fifty thousand dollars from the fund annually to pay for the costs at any one eligible site for the activities described in Section 44-56-420(B).
4. (D) The department shall promulgate regulations necessary for the implementation of this section.
5. (E) The department shall create a mechanism in which consultants' credentials, work objectives and plans, proposed costs ranging from assessment, cleanup, and monitoring are outlined and submitted in writing for the department's approval. The department shall establish a list of those vendors who are qualified to perform work to be financed by the fund. Vendors must be recertified every two years.

HISTORY: 1995 Act No. 119, Section 1; 1998 Act No. 419, Part II, Section 64A; 2009 Act No. 14, Section 1, eff May 6, 2009.