(A) An environmental audit report or any part of an environmental audit report is privileged and, therefore, immune from discovery and is not admissible as evidence in a civil or administrative penalty action, except as provided in Sections 48-57-40 and 48-57-50. These documents are not entitled to the privilege:

1. (1) information obtained by observation by a regulatory agency;
2. (2) information obtained from a source independent of the environmental audit;
3. (3) documents, communication, data, reports, or other information required to be collected, maintained, otherwise made available, or reported to a regulatory agency or any other persons by statute, regulation, ordinance, permit, order, consent agreement, or as otherwise provided by law;
4. (4) documents prepared either prior to the beginning of the environmental audit or subsequent to the completion date of the audit report, and in all cases, any documents prepared independent of the audit or audit report;
5. (5) documents prepared as a result of multiple or continuous self-auditing conducted in an effort to intentionally avoid liability for violations;
6. (6) information which is knowingly misrepresented or misstated or which is knowingly deleted or withheld from an environmental audit report, whether or not included in a subsequent environmental audit report;
7. (7) information in instances where the material shows evidence of noncompliance with state, federal, regional, or local environmental laws, permits, consent agreements, regulations, ordinances, or orders and the owner or operator failed to either promptly take corrective action or eliminate any violation of law identified during the environmental audit within a reasonable period of time, but not exceeding three years after discovery of the noncompliance or violation unless a longer period of time is set forth in a schedule of compliance in an order issued by the department, after notice in the State Register and following the department's determination that acceptable progress is being made.