Senate Bill No. 602
(By Senators Wooton, Redd, Burnette, Mitchell, Rowe and Hunter)
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[Introduced February 15, 2002; referred to the Committee
on Natural Resources; and then to the Committee on Finance.]
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A BILL to amend article eleven, chapter twenty-two of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
twenty-nine, relating to reimbursement of costs incurred for
emergency response to accidental discharge or spill of
pollution into waters of the state; and authorizing the
department of environmental protection to collect emergency
response costs.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article eleven, chapter twenty-two of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section
twenty-nine, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 11. WATER POLLUTION CONTROL ACT.
§
22-11-29. Reimbursement of response costs.
(a) The secretary is authorized to recover through civil
action or cooperative agreements with responsible persons the full
amount of any funds expended for the purpose of responding to a
spill or accidental discharge of any pollutant which enters or
potentially may enter into the waters of the state. All moneys
recovered by the secretary shall be deposited into the water
quality management fund created in section ten, article eleven of
this chapter and shall be used for future responses to a spill or
accidental discharge of any pollutant which enters or potentially
may enter into the waters of the state.
(b) Any civil action instituted pursuant to this section may
be brought in either Kanawha County or the county in which the
spill or accidental discharge occurs or the county in which the
response occurred.
(c) The person or persons responsible for the spill or
discharge shall pay all attorney fees and costs associated with the
action if the secretary prevails.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to authorize the Department
of Environmental Protection to be reimbursed for costs incurred for
emergency response to spills or accidental discharges of pollutants
which enter or may enter into the waters of the state.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.