A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to direct the department of environment and Natural resources to establish and maintain a database of violations and enforcement actions.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  Part 1 of Article 7 of Chapter 143B of the General Statutes is amended by adding a new section to read:
"§ 143B‑279.13.  List of chronic violators; enforcement database.
(a)	As used in this section:
(1)	'Enforcement action' means an action taken by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in response to a violation by a permittee or a licensee required to obtain a permit or license issued by the Department. Enforcement action includes a civil penalty, an injunction, a special order by consent, a restraining order, and a stopwork order. Enforcement action does not include a notice of violation.
(2)	'Violation' means any violation of a federal or State law, regulation, or rule for the protection of the environment and natural resources or any violation of a condition of a permit or license issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
(b)	The Department of Environment and Natural Resources shall establish and maintain a database of violations and enforcement actions taken by the Department and shall make it available to the public by publishing it on the Web site of the Department. The enforcement database shall include all of the following:
(1)	A list of each violation.
(2)	The extent of each violation.
(3)	Any enforcement action that is ongoing or that was taken in the preceding two years.
(4)	The number and date of any notices of violations sent by the Department prior to its taking an enforcement action.
(5)	The results of each enforcement action taken by the Department.
(c)	Any permittee or licensee required to obtain a permit or license issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources shall notify the Department within 30 days of being convicted of a crime regarding a violation.
(d)	The database established pursuant to subsection (b) of this section shall contain and be searchable by all of the following criteria:
(1)	The name of the violator and its permit number.
(2)	The name of the facility at which the violation occurred, if applicable.
(3)	The location at which the violation occurred.
(4)	The nature of the violation, including whether the violation involved a discharge to air or water or onto land.
(e)	The Department of Environment and Natural Resources shall adopt any rules needed to implement this section."
SECTION 2.  Nothing in this act shall be construed as limiting any remedy for noncompliance available to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources under existing law.
SECTION 3.  This act becomes effective September 1, 2005.