2023 South Carolina Code of Laws › Title 48 - Environmental Protection and Conservation › Chapter 2 - Environmental Protection Funds › Section 48-2-50. Fees.

(A) In order to facilitate the proper administration of each act listed in Section 48-2-30(B), the department shall charge fees for the various services and functions it performs under each of those acts including, but not limited to, application fees, processing fees, permit maintenance fees, certification fees, license fees, registration fees, plan review fees, facility inspection fees, and emission fees.
(B) All fees in existence before the effective date of this article which implement the acts identified in Section 48-2-30(B) must be continued and must be calculated and maintained with any additional fees authorized by this article; however, the existing fees may be used in any manner consistent with the department's authority, the provisions of this article notwithstanding.
(C) No permit, certificate, license, or registration and no renewal or modification of a permit, certificate, license, or registration may be issued to an applicant under the acts enumerated in Section 48-2-30(B) until all fees are paid in full. The department shall develop a schedule by regulation for the collection of delinquent accounts and the amounts to be applied to delinquent accounts.
(D) The department shall develop regulations which set annual levels of fees as authorized by this article. The level of these fees must be determined after careful consideration of the direct and indirect costs incurred by the department in performing its various functions and services under each of the acts enumerated in Section 48-2-30(B). Any subsequent increase in the level of these fees must be justified by an assessment report compiled in accordance with Section 1-23-115. All fees and procedures for collecting fees must be adopted pursuant to procedures as are set forth in the Administrative Procedures Act. In promulgating these regulations, the department shall consider detailed information regarding other costs to be funded by the proposed fee schedule or fee increases and the current and proposed average response time to permit applications under that program.
(E) In the third, and all subsequent years, the fee schedule promulgated by the department may not, when added to its individual program fund balance from prior years, exceed one hundred fifty percent of the fees collected in the previous year.
(F) The total fees assessed under this article and listed in subsection (H) to be paid by a single permitted facility under any one act enumerated in Section 48-2-30(B) may not exceed five percent of the total of all fees assessed under that act, except for those fees collected pursuant to the Clean Air Act and the Atomic Energy Act.
(G) On January 1, 1994, and January first of every even-numbered year after 1994, the department shall evaluate the implementation of the permit fee program and provide this evaluation in writing to the Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee. This evaluation shall include a report on the total fees collected, the amount of general funds allocated to the department, the department's use of the fees and the general funds, the number of permit applications received, the number of permits issued, the progress in eliminating permit backlogs, and the timeliness of permit processing.
(H) For the following categories, the fees shall not exceed the maximum amounts listed below. The department is encouraged to use graduated fees to reflect the volume of waste, population served, or other factors determined necessary to fairly apportion the fees:
(1) Water Pollution Control (a) Annual fees for NPDES Permits and State Construction Permits for Land Application Systems; however, annual operating fees for both major and minor facilities must be calculated based on the previous year's actual flow as reported to the department: Type of Facility (i) Major Facility (Flow greater than 2,000,000 gal/day) $ 5,400 (ii) Major Facility (Flow 1,000,000-1,999,999 gal/day) $ 4,050 (iii) Minor Facility (Flow 500,000-999,999 gal/day) $ 3,375 (iv) Minor Facility (Flow 100,000-499,999 gal/day) $ 2,700 (v) Minor Facility (Flow 50,000-99,999 gal/day) $ 2,025 (vi) Minor Facility (Flow 0-49,999 gal/day) $ 1,350 (vii) Multiple Discharged Permits $ 4,050 (More than 5 discharge points) per discharged over 5 $ 1,520 (viii) General Permits $ 170 (b) Water Quality Certification Application Fees: (i) Certification of major activities requiring federal or state permits $ 1,688 (ii) Certification of minor activities requiring federal or state permits $ 255 (c) Construction Permit Fees: (i) Pretreatment Systems: 1. Oil/water separators or Air Stripper Systems only $ 1,013 2. All other Pretreatment Systems $ 3,038 (ii) Collection Systems: 1. 1000 ft. or less $ 338 2. 1,001 to 10,000 ft. $ 845 3. 10,000 ft. or more $ 1,688 4. Delegated Program $ 170 (iii) Wastewater Treatment Facilities, provided that fees for modifications without expansions for both major and minor facilities must be assessed by the department only for those modifications which require the actual submission of plans and specifications to the department for engineering review 1. Major Facilities (1,000,000 gal/day or greater) a. New $ 5,400 b. Expansion $ 4,050 c. Modification w/o expansion $ 2,700 2. Minor Facilities (0 to 999,999 gal/day) a. New $ 3,375 b. Expansion $ 2,700 c. Modification w/o expansion $ 2,025 (2) Water Supply Operating Permit (a) Major Facility (Serving more than 10,000 people) $ 4,050 (b) Major Facility (Serving 5,000-10,000 people) $ 3,038 (c) Minor Facility (Serving 1,000-4,900 people) $ 761 (d) Minor Facility (Serving less than 1,000 people) $ 255 (3) Air Quality Control (a) Permit fees for air quality operating permits must be based on an annual fee of $25.00 per ton of each regulated pollutant based on actual emissions, up to a maximum 4,000 tons a year a regulated pollutant. "Actual emissions" means the actual rate of emissions in tons per year of any regulated pollutant which was emitted over the preceding calendar year or any other period determined by the department to be representative of normal source operation. Actual emissions must be calculated using the unit's actual operating hours, production rates, and in-place control equipment, types of materials processed, stored, or combusted during the preceding calendar year or such other time period established by the department. (b) New sources or any source without sufficient data to be able to determine actual emissions must be assessed the above $25.00 a ton fee with appropriate CPI adjustment calculated on a prorata basis for their months of operation. The fee must be based on permitted emissions, until such time as "Actual emissions" can be calculated, and must be paid before the operating permit is issued. (c) Pursuant to the 1990 Federal Clean Air Act, fees for air emissions or for air emission permits may be adjusted to reflect any increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the year before the billing month over the 1989 CPI. The CPI for any calendar year is the average of CPI for all urban consumers published by the Department of Labor, as of the close of the twelve-month period ending on August thirty-first of each calendar year. (4) Laboratory Certification Services (a) Application fee $ 507 (b) Minimum Annual Fee (per laboratory) $ 507 (c) Clean Water Act Inorganics (per parameter) $ 102 (d) Safe Drinking Water Act Inorganics (per parameter) $ 102 (e) SDWA "Secondary" Inorganics (per parameter) $ 102 (f) CWA Organics (i) PCB's and Pesticides (per Sub-Group) $ 1,268 (ii) Herbicides (per Sub-Group) $ 1,268 (iii) Volatiles (per Sub-Group) $ 1,268 (iv) Semi-Volatiles (per Sub-Group) $ 1,268 (v) Dioxins and Furans (per Sub-Group) $ 1,268 (g) SDWA Organics (i) Trihalomethanes $ 1,268 (ii) Synthetic Organic Compounds $ 2,532 (iii) Volatiles $ 2,532 (h) Microbiology (i) Total Coliform $ 255 (ii) Fecal Coliform $ 255 (iii) Fecal Steptococci $ 255 (i) Biology (i) Toxicity Testing $ 2,532 (ii) Taxonomy $ 2,268 (j) Solid and Hazardous Wastes (SW 846 Methods) $ 2,532 (k) Air Quality Analysis $ 2,532 (5) Radioactive Material Licenses (a) Low level Radioactive Waste Disposal $ 275,000 (b) Radioactive Material Manufact/processing $ 27,000 (c) Decontamination Facil. $ 3,000 (d) Industrial Radiography under Reciprocity $ 500 (e) Low Level Waste Consolidation $ 25,000 (f) Low Level Waste Processing $ 50,000 (6) Radioaction Waste Transportation Permits $ 10,000 (7) Hazardous Waste Units $ 3,038
(8) Surface Water Withdrawals:
(a) Existing surface water withdrawal permit application processing fee $1,000;
(b) New surface water withdrawal permit application processing fee $7,500;
(c) Modification of surface water withdrawal permit application processing fee $2,000;
(d) Renewal of surface water withdrawal permit with modifications application processing fee $1,000;
(e) Surface water withdrawal annual operating fee per permitted intake $1,000.
HISTORY: 1993 Act No. 122, Section 2; 2010 Act No. 247, Section 3.A, eff January 1, 2011; 2012 Act No. 248, Section 1, eff January 1, 2013.
Code Commissioner's Note
At the direction of the Code Commissioner, the 2010 version of subsection (H)(8), is replaced by the 2012 version of subsection (H)(8), effective January 1, 2013; the two versions are substantially identical.
Editor's Note
2010 Act No. 247, Section 3.C, provides as follows:
"The new item added to Section 48-2-50(H) by this SECTION is repealed January 1, 2013. No new fees may be charged for Surface Water Withdrawal applications following that date without an act of the General Assembly setting the fee schedule."
2012 Act No. 248, Section 3, provides as follows:
"SECTION 3. Section 3C of Act 247 of 2010, which reads as stated below, is repealed:
"C. The new item added to Section 48-2-50 by this SECTION is repealed January 1, 2013. No new fees may be charged for Surface Water Withdrawal applications following that date without an act of the General Assembly setting the fee schedule."
Effect of Amendment
The 2010 amendment added subsection (H)(8), relating to surface water withdrawals.
The 2012 amendment added subsection (H)(8), relating to surface water withdrawals.