GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF NORTH CAROLINA

SESSION 1993

S	1 

SENATE BILL 821

Short Title:  Water Withdrawal Registration.	(Public)
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Sponsors: Senators Tally; Gulley, Ward, Cochrane, and Odom.
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Referred to:  Environment and Natural Resources.
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April 12, 1993

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT TO AMEND THE CURRENT PROCEDURE FOR THE REGISTRATION OF WATER WITHDRAWALS TO MAKE THE PROCEDURE MORE EFFECTIVE, TO PROVIDE MORE USEFUL INFORMATION, AND TO IMPOSE A LATE PAYMENT FEE FOR LATE REGISTRATIONS.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
Section 1.  G.S. 143-215.22H reads as rewritten:
"§ 143-215.22H.  Registration of water withdrawals and transfers required.
(a)	Any person who withdraws 1,000,000 gallons per day or more of water from the surface or ground waters of the State or who transfers 1,000,000 gallons per day or more of water from one river basin to another shall register the withdrawal or transfer with the Commission.  A person registering a water withdrawal or transfer shall provide the Commission with the following information:
(1)	The maximum daily amount of the water withdrawal or transfer expressed in millions of gallons per day.
(1a)	The monthly average withdrawal or transfer expressed in millions of gallons per day.
     	(2)	The location of the points of withdrawal and  discharge and the capacity of each facility used to make the withdrawal or transfer.
(3)	The monthly average discharge expressed in millions of gallons per day.
(b)	Any person initiating a new water withdrawal or transfer of 1,000,000 gallons per day or more shall register the withdrawal or transfer with the Commission not later than six months after the initiation of the withdrawal or transfer.  The information required under subsection (a) of this section shall be submitted with respect to the new withdrawal or transfer.
(c)	The Commission may charge a registration fee, not to exceed fifty dollars ($50.00), for processing an application for a registration under this section.  The Commission may also charge any person who fails to register a withdrawal or transfer, as provided by this section, a late payment fee of five dollars ($5.00) per day for each day that the registration is overdue.  However, the late payment fee shall not exceed five hundred dollars ($500.00).
No registration fee or late payment fee shall be charged, however, to a farmer for failure to register a withdrawal or transfer that pertains to his or her farming operations in a timely manner, as provided by this section."
Sec. 2.  Any person with an existing withdrawal or transfer of 1,000,000 gallons per day, as of July 1, 1993, shall register the withdrawal or transfer with the Commission by January 1, 1994.
Sec. 3.  G.S. 143-215.3(a)(1b) reads as rewritten:
"(1b)	The fee to be charged pursuant to G.S. 143-215.3(a)(1a) for processing of an application for a permit under G.S. 143-215.1 of Article 21 and G.S. 143-215.108 and G.S. 143-215.109 of Article 21B of this Chapter may not exceed four hundred dollars ($400.00). The fee to be charged pursuant to G.S. 143-215.3(a)(1a) for processing an application for a registration under Article 38 of this Chapter may not exceed fifty dollars ($50.00) for any single application, except that a penalty of as much as twenty percent (20%) of the fee may be assessed for late registration. The fee for administering and compliance monitoring under G.S. 143-215.1 of Article 21 and G.S. 143-215.108 and G.S. 143-215.109 of Article 21B shall be charged on an annual basis for each year of the permit term and may not exceed one thousand five hundred dollars ($1,500) per year. Fees for processing all permits under Article 21A and all other sections of Articles 21 and 21B shall not exceed one hundred dollars ($100.00) for any single permit. Notwithstanding any other provision of this subdivision, the total payment for fees required for all permits under this subsection for any single facility shall not exceed seven thousand five hundred dollars ($7,500) per year, which amount shall include all application fees and fees for administration and compliance monitoring. A single facility is defined to be any contiguous area under one ownership and in which permitted activities occur. For all permits issued under these Articles where a fee schedule is not specified in the statutes, the Commission, or other commission specified by statute shall adopt a fee schedule in a rule following the procedures established by the Administrative Procedure Act. Such fee schedules shall be established to reflect the size of the emission or discharge, the potential impact on the environment, the staff costs involved, relative costs of the issuance of new permits and the reissuance of existing permits, and shall include adequate safeguards to prevent unusual fee assessments which would result in serious economic burden on an individual applicant. A system shall be considered to allow consolidated annual payments for persons with multiple permits. In its rulemaking to establish fee schedules, the Commission is also directed to consider a method of rewarding facilities which achieve full compliance with administrative and self-monitoring reporting requirements, and to consider, in those cases where the cost of renewal or amendment of a permit is less than for the original permit, a lower fee for such renewal or amendment."
Sec. 4.  This act becomes effective July 1, 1993.