2004 Senate Bill 977 ↩

Senate Roll Call 203: Passed

To require the person responsible for the spill of any polluting material in excess a certain quantity specified in administrative rules to immediately report the release to the local 9-1-1 dispatch center and to the local health department. If the state police or another state agency receives a spill notice from another state, Canada, or Ontario, they would also report it to to the local 9-1-1 dispatch center. Within 10 days the person responsible for the spill would be required to report to the Department of Environmental Quality the cause of the release, the amount released, the time the release began and ended, response measures taken or to be taken, the amount of polluting material recovered, and measures undertaken to prevent the recurrence of similar releases. Noncompliance would be a felony punishable by a fine of $2,500 to $25,000, plus an additional fine of up to $25,000 for each day release is not reported. Penalties would only apply to a person who should know that he or she is required to report a release.