§ 8-6-610 - Rules and regulations -- Conditions imposed upon grant recipients. - Arkansas Statutes

8-6-610. Rules and regulations -- Conditions imposed upon grant recipients.

(a) The Arkansas Pollution Control and Ecology Commission may adopt reasonable rules and regulations necessary to implement or effectuate the purposes and intent of this subchapter, including, but not limited to, collecting fees, determining grant eligibility, setting priorities for the administration of this subchapter, and requiring reimbursement of grant moneys for failure to abide by the terms of this subchapter.

(b) (1) The rules shall be reviewed by the House and Senate Interim Committees on Public Health, Welfare, and Labor or appropriate subcommittees of the committees. At a minimum, the rules shall require that applicants or their agents which receive a grant meet the following conditions of the grant program as set forward in the department's regulations.

(2) The applicants shall:

(A) Have a solid waste management plan on file with the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality within the first year following the date of the grant awarded by the department;

(B) Actively develop a recycling program, as outlined in the grant application, in the three (3) years following the date of the grant award by the department;

(C) Actively seek to market or reuse the materials diverted under the recycling program from deposition in landfills or incinerators in the period of three (3) years following the date of the grant award by the department;

(D) In the case of mechanical processing equipment or facilities, provide information that reasonably demonstrates that existing mechanical processing equipment or facilities are not serving or could not serve the relevant area. An applicant wishing to obtain a grant to purchase mechanical processing equipment or facilities with grant funds must describe in detail the equipment to be purchased and explain why the applicant has concluded that such equipment is not available in the private sector; and

(E) Thirty (30) days prior to submitting a grant application to the department, the applicant shall be required to insert in a newspaper of general circulation in the area affected a notice describing the applicant's grant request and soliciting written comments from the public. Copies of these comments shall accompany the grant application when submitted to the department.

(c) If, within a three-year period beginning on the date that the department awards the grant, the grantee does not meet the conditions of the grant prescribed under subsection (b) of this section and the regulations promulgated under authority of this chapter, the department may order the grantee to reimburse the department for up to one hundred percent (100%) of the grant according to the following schedule:

(1) If the grantee fails to meet the conditions in the first year after the grant award, the grantee may be required to reimburse one hundred percent (100%) of the grant;

(2) If the grantee fails to meet the conditions in the second year after the grant award, the grantee may be required to reimburse sixty-six percent (66%) of the grant; or

(3) If the grantee fails to meet the conditions in the third year after the grant award, the grantee may be required to reimburse thirty-three percent (33%) of the grant.