H*4283 Session 109 (1991-1992)
H*4283(Rat #0450, Act #0389 of 1992) General Bill, By J.J. Snow
A Bill to amend Chapter 9, Title 46, Code of Laws of South Carolina, 1976,
relating to the State Crop Pest Commission, so as to add Sections 46-9-15 and
46-9-110 and revise the current duties and responsibilities of the Commission
to provide a uniform comprehensive regulation of subject matter assigned by
law to it by revising the membership and duties, defining terms, providing for
confidential information, detailing the Director's authority, and revising
penalties.
01/28/92 House Introduced and read first time HJ-9
01/28/92 House Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Natural
Resources and Environmental Affairs HJ-10
02/27/92 House Committee report: Favorable with amendment
Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environmental
Affairs HJ-6
03/05/92 House Amended HJ-47
03/05/92 House Read second time HJ-49
03/17/92 House Read third time and sent to Senate HJ-19
03/18/92 Senate Introduced and read first time SJ-16
03/18/92 Senate Referred to Committee on Agriculture and Natural
Resources SJ-16
04/16/92 Senate Committee report: Favorable Agriculture and
Natural Resources SJ-20
04/29/92 Senate Read second time SJ-316
04/30/92 Senate Read third time and enrolled SJ-24
05/13/92 Ratified R 450
05/15/92 Signed By Governor
05/15/92 Effective date 05/15/92
05/15/92 Act No. 389
07/09/92 Copies available
(A389, R450, H4283)
AN ACT TO AMEND CHAPTER 9, TITLE 46, CODE OF
LAWS OF SOUTH CAROLINA, 1976, RELATING TO THE
STATE CROP PEST COMMISSION, SO AS TO ADD
SECTIONS 46-9-15 AND 46-9-110 AND REVISE THE
CURRENT DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE
COMMISSION TO PROVIDE A UNIFORM
COMPREHENSIVE REGULATION OF SUBJECT MATTER
ASSIGNED BY LAW TO IT BY REVISING THE
MEMBERSHIP AND DUTIES, DEFINING TERMS,
PROVIDING FOR CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION,
DETAILING THE DIRECTOR'S AUTHORITY, AND
REVISING PENALTIES.
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of South
Carolina:
State Crop Pest Commission; duties and responsibilities
revised; terms defined; confidential information; director's
authority; penalties revised
SECTION 1. Chapter 9, Title 46 of the 1976 Code is amended
to read:
"CHAPTER 9
State Crop Pest Commission
Section 46-9-10. The State Crop Pest Commission is
established. It shall execute this chapter, Section 46-1-140,
Chapters 10, 13, 25, 26, 33, 35, and 37 of this title and other
duties and responsibilities assigned by law. The commission
consists of no less than three members of the Agriculture and
Natural Resources Committee of the Clemson University Board of
Trustees, or the committee's successor, as designated by the
board.
Section 46-9-15. As used in this chapter:
(1) `Commission' means the State Crop Pest Commission or
an officer or employee of the commission to whom authority to
act in its stead is granted.
(2) `Director' means the Director of Regulatory and Public
Service Programs, Clemson University.
(3) `Division' means the Division of Regulatory and Public
Service Programs, Clemson University, and its employees, agents,
and officials.
(4) `Genetically engineered organism' means an organism
altered or produced through genetic modification from a donor,
vector, or recipient organism using recombinant DNA
techniques.
(5) `Plant pest' means a living stage of insects, mites,
nematodes, slugs, animals, protozoa, snails or other invertebrate
animals, bacteria, weeds, fungi, other parasite plants or their
reproductive parts, or viruses, or organisms similar to or allied
with the foregoing, including genetically engineered organisms or
infectious substances which directly or indirectly may injure or
cause disease or damage in plants or their parts or processed,
manufactured, or other products of plants, and which may be a
serious agricultural threat to the State, as determined by the
director.
(6) `Quarantine' means limitations placed upon the free
movement of plant pests, animals, plants, equipment, machinery,
goods, genetically engineered organisms, or means of
transportation, or all of the foregoing, considered reasonably
necessary to prevent the spread of a plant pest.
(7) `Quarantine area' means that geographic area of the State
including as a minimum the infested area and the regulated area to
which a quarantine applies.
(a) `Infested area' means that geographic area of the State
in which the presence of a plant pest has been confirmed and in
which primary remediation efforts will be applied.
(b) `Regulated area' means that geographic area of the
State adjacent, but not necessarily contiguous, to the infested area
and in which efforts are designed to prevent further movement
and spread of a plant pest.
Section 46-9-20. The commission may appoint an
entomologist, known as the State Entomologist, and a plant
pathologist, known as the State Plant Pathologist, who serve at the
pleasure of the commission. The entomologist and pathologist
shall advise, within their respective areas of expertise, the
commission in the performance of its duties.
Section 46-9-30. The commission by regulation shall
establish procedures dealing with confidential business
information. It is unlawful for an authorized representative of the
commission in an official capacity to disclose under this chapter
or another applicable chapter of this title information entitled to
protection as confidential business information or as a trade
secret. This information includes, but is not limited to, research
information or new techniques, procedures, or products whether
so denominated under federal or state law or regulation. It is
unlawful also for the representative to use the information for
personal gain or to reveal it to an unauthorized person if the
confidential business information or trade secret clearly is
delineated as such. A person who violates this section must be
fined not more than two hundred dollars or imprisoned not more
than thirty days. He also may be dismissed from his position.
Section 46-9-40. The commission, in accordance with the
Administrative Procedures Act, may promulgate and enforce
reasonable regulations as in the judgment of the commission may
be necessary to eradicate or prevent the introduction, spread, or
dissemination of plant pests, including genetically engineered
plants or plant pest organisms, and prevent fraud or
misrepresentation in the sale and dissemination of fruit trees, nut
trees, shade and ornamental trees, vines, shrubs, plants, bulbs, and
roots for propagation purposes. The commission may regulate or
prohibit the shipment within, or the importation into, this State of
plants, farm products, or other articles of any nature or character
from a state, territory, or foreign country when, in the opinion of
the commission, the regulation or prohibition is necessary to
prevent the introduction or dissemination of plant pests.
The commission may carry out operations, including
quarantines or measures to locate, suppress, control, or eradicate
or to prevent or retard the spread of plant pests, independently or
in cooperation with counties or their political subdivisions,
municipalities, farmers' associations or similar organizations,
individuals, federal agencies, or agencies of other states, by
regulation, compliance agreement, judicial action, or other
appropriate means.
Section 46-9-50. The commission shall delegate the duties
provided in this chapter and other applicable chapters of this title
to the director who may administer and enforce the provisions and
promulgate related regulations.
The director is the final decision authority in approving
releases or the introduction of genetically engineered organisms
for agricultural use in this State. The director may hold public
hearings at appropriate geographical locations, after thirty days'
public notice in at least one newspaper of general circulation
within the area. In making a final decision the director may rely
on the findings of federal or state agencies involved.
The director may promulgate regulations designating plant
pests. In the designation he may rely upon prior determinations
by federal authorities and in effect in Title 7, Code of Federal
Regulations. If prior determinations have not been made, the
director shall comply with the Administrative Procedures Act.
Section 46-9-60. (A) When the commission finds an
article infested or reasonably believed to be infested or a host or
plant pest existing on premises or in transit in this State, upon
giving notice to the owner or the person in possession, it may
seize, quarantine, treat, or otherwise dispose of the plant pest,
host, or article in a manner the commission considers necessary to
suppress, control, or eradicate or to prevent or retard the spread of
the plant pest, or the commission may order the owner or person
in possession to treat or otherwise dispose of the plant pest, host,
or article. The owner of property destroyed or ordered to be
treated or otherwise disposed of under this section, in an action
against this State in the appropriate court for the county in which
the property was located, may recover just compensation for
property destroyed or the reasonable costs of disposal if he
establishes that the property was not a pest, host, or infested
article. The State has a lien, equal in dignity to a tax lien, on
property treated to the extent of the value of the treatment
provided, exclusive of the salary costs of commission
employees.
(B) The commission may quarantine the State or a portion of
it when it determines that the action is necessary to prevent or
retard the spread of a plant pest within or from this State and
quarantine another state or portion of it whenever it determines a
plant pest exists in it and that the action is necessary to prevent or
retard its spread into this State. In quarantining in this State the
commission is bound by the Administrative Procedures Act. In
quarantining in another state the commission may rely upon a
similar quarantine imposed by the appropriate agency of that
state's government or the federal government, and the
implementing regulation is exempt from submission to the
General Assembly. However, the regulation automatically
expires thirty days after the date of expiration of the quarantine
upon which it was based. The commission may quarantine the
entire State or may limit the quarantine to the infested area and the
regulated area and without further hearing may extend or decrease
the infested or the regulated areas, whether or not the new area is
contiguous to the old, upon discovery of the plant pest in a new
location. The action is effective upon publication of a notice to
that effect in newspapers it selects in the newly-affected area or
by direct written notice to those concerned. In delineating
geographic areas under this section, the commission shall consider
those geographic districts established by Section 22-2-190.
(C) Following establishment of the quarantine, no person may
move a regulated article described in the quarantine or move the
plant pest against which the quarantine is established within,
from, into, or through this State contrary to regulations
promulgated by the commission. Notice of the regulations must
be published in newspapers in the quarantined area the
commission selects. The regulations may restrict the movement
of the plant pest and regulated articles from the quarantined or
regulated area in this State into or through other parts of this State
or other states and from the quarantined or regulated area in other
states into or through this State and shall impose inspection,
disinfection, certification, or permit and other requirements the
commission considers necessary to effectuate the purposes of this
chapter.
Section 46-9-70. The members of the commission and their
assistants, deputies, and agents have police power in executing
this chapter and as otherwise provided by law. Every person shall
report violations to the commission.
Section 46-9-80. A person who seeks to prevent an
inspection under the direction of the commission, the director, or
his deputies, assistants, or agents or who otherwise interferes with
the director or his assistants, deputies, or agents, while in the
performance of their duties under this chapter and other chapters
of this title assigned to the jurisdiction of the commission, is
guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, must be fined not
less than fifty nor more than two hundred dollars or imprisoned
not less than ten nor more than thirty days, or both, for a first
offense and for a second offense in the discretion of the court.
Section 46-9-90. (A) A person violating this chapter
or regulations of the commission is guilty of a misdemeanor and,
upon conviction, must be fined not less than fifty nor more than
two hundred dollars or imprisoned not less than ten nor more than
thirty days, or both, for a first offense and for a second offense in
the discretion of the court.
(B) The director after opportunity for a hearing may deny,
suspend, modify, or revoke a license or certificate for a violation
of state or federal law or regulation. In addition to denial,
suspension, revocation, or modification of a license or certificate
or other penalty set forth in this chapter, the license or certificate
holder who violates this chapter or another chapter under the
cognizance of the commission may be assessed a civil penalty by
the director of not more than one thousand dollars for each
violation. Each day a violation continues constitutes a separate
violation. The director may suspend a license or certificate
against which a civil penalty has been imposed if the license or
certificate holder has not satisfied the penalty within thirty days
after the license or certificate holder receives notification of the
final decision of the director to impose the penalty. The license or
certificate holder is entitled to a hearing on the suspension, but the
suspension remains in effect pending the hearing and the decision
of the director. Matters considered by the hearing officer are
limited to whether a duly issued final order of the director existed,
whether the license or certificate holder had notice of the final
order, and whether the assessed penalty was paid within thirty
days of the notice. The filing of a judicial appeal does not act as
an automatic stay of enforcement of the civil penalty or of the
suspension.
(C) The commission may enforce its ordinances and
regulations in a court of competent jurisdiction by civil as well as
criminal proceedings. If it is necessary to issue a writ of
injunction, no court of this State has the right previous to a trial
upon the merits to set aside the writ on bond. The commission
may utilize its own counsel or call upon the Attorney General or
the appropriate solicitor, or all of the foregoing. The commission
and its agents in the discharge of the duties and in the enforcement
of the powers delegated in this chapter may administer oaths and
hear witnesses, and to that end the sheriffs in the State shall serve
all summonses and other papers upon the request of the
commission.
Section 46-9-100. Fines resulting from prosecutions under
this chapter and other chapters of this title assigned to the
commission must be paid to the State Treasurer and deposited to
the credit of the State Treasury.
Section 46-9-110. Local ordinances pertaining to the subject
matter assigned by law to the commission, whether or not in
conflict, are void."
Time effective
SECTION 2. This act takes effect upon approval by the
Governor.
Approved the 15th day of May, 1992. |