South Carolina § 46-9-60 - Powers and duties of commission upon finding or suspecting infestation; quarantines; effect of quarantines.

§ 46-9-60. Powers and duties of commission upon finding or suspecting infestation; quarantines; effect of quarantines.

(A) When the commission finds an article infested or reasonably believed to be infested or a host or plant pest existing on premises or in transit in this State, upon giving notice to the owner or the person in possession, it may seize, quarantine, treat, or otherwise dispose of the plant pest, host, or article in a manner the commission considers necessary to suppress, control, or eradicate or to prevent or retard the spread of the plant pest, or the commission may order the owner or person in possession to treat or otherwise dispose of the plant pest, host, or article. The owner of property destroyed or ordered to be treated or otherwise disposed of under this section, in an action against this State in the appropriate court for the county in which the property was located, may recover just compensation for property destroyed or the reasonable costs of disposal if he establishes that the property was not a pest, host, or infested article. The State has a lien, equal in dignity to a tax lien, on property treated to the extent of the value of the treatment provided, exclusive of the salary costs of commission employees.

(B) The commission may quarantine the State or a portion of it when it determines that the action is necessary to prevent or retard the spread of a plant pest within or from this State and quarantine another state or portion of it whenever it determines a plant pest exists in it and that the action is necessary to prevent or retard its spread into this State. In quarantining in this State the commission is bound by the Administrative Procedures Act. In quarantining in another state the commission may rely upon a similar quarantine imposed by the appropriate agency of that state's government or the federal government, and the implementing regulation is exempt from submission to the General Assembly. However, the regulation automatically expires thirty days after the date of expiration of the quarantine upon which it was based. The commission may quarantine the entire State or may limit the quarantine to the infested area and the regulated area and without further hearing may extend or decrease the infested or the regulated areas, whether or not the new area is contiguous to the old, upon discovery of the plant pest in a new location. The action is effective upon publication of a notice to that effect in newspapers it selects in the newly-affected area or by direct written notice to those concerned. In delineating geographic areas under this section, the commission shall consider those geographic districts established by Section 22-2-190.

(C) Following establishment of the quarantine, no person may move a regulated article described in the quarantine or move the plant pest against which the quarantine is established within, from, into, or through this State contrary to regulations promulgated by the commission. Notice of the regulations must be published in newspapers in the quarantined area the commission selects. The regulations may restrict the movement of the plant pest and regulated articles from the quarantined or regulated area in this State into or through other parts of this State or other states and from the quarantined or regulated area in other states into or through this State and shall impose inspection, disinfection, certification, or permit and other requirements the commission considers necessary to effectuate the purposes of this chapter.

HISTORY: 1962 Code SECTION 3-107; 1952 Code SECTION 3-107; 1942 Code SECTION 3258; 1932 Code SECTION 3258; Civ. C. '22 SECTION 964; Civ. C. '12 SECTION 879; Civ. C. '02 SECTION 745; 1901 (23) 703; 1903 (24) 22; 1912 (27) 748; 1992 Act No. 389, SECTION 1, eff May 15, 1992.