WEST virginia Legislature
2017 regular session
By
[
to the Committee on the Judiciary
A BILL to amend and
reenact §22-15A-4 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended, relating to
increasing criminal penalties for littering.
Be it enacted by the
Legislature of West Virginia:
That §22-15A-4 of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as
amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 15A. THE A. JAMES MANCHIN REHABILITATION
ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION PLAN.
§22-15A-4. Unlawful
disposal of litter; civil and criminal penalty; litter control fund; evidence;
notice violations; litter receptacle placement; penalty; duty to enforce
violations.
(a)
(1) No person shall may place, deposit, dump, throw or cause to
be placed, deposited, dumped or thrown any litter as defined in section two of
this article, in or upon any public or private highway, road, street or alley;
any private property; any public property; or the waters of the state or within
one hundred feet of the waters of this state, except in a proper litter or
other solid waste receptacle.
(2)
It is unlawful for any person to place, deposit, dump, throw or cause to be
placed, deposited, dumped or thrown any litter from a motor vehicle or other
conveyance or to perform any act which constitutes a violation of the motor
vehicle laws contained in section fourteen, article fourteen, chapter
seventeen-c of this code.
(3)
If any litter is placed, deposited, dumped, discharged, thrown or caused to be
placed, deposited, dumped or thrown from a motor vehicle, boat, airplane or
other conveyance, it is prima facie evidence that the owner or the operator of
the motor vehicle, boat, airplane or other conveyance intended to violate the
provisions of this section.
(4)
Any person who violates the provisions of this section by placing, depositing,
dumping or throwing or causing to be placed, deposited, dumped or thrown any litter,
not collected for commercial purposes, in an amount not exceeding one hundred
pounds in weight or twenty-seven cubic feet in size, is guilty of a
misdemeanor. Upon conviction, he or she is subject to a fine of not less
than $100 nor more than shall be fined $1,000, or in the discretion
of the court, sentenced to perform community service by cleaning up litter from
any public highway, road, street, alley or any other public park or public
property, or waters of the state, as designated by the court, for not less
than eight nor more than sixteen hours, or both one hundred hours.
(5)
Any person who violates the provisions of this section by placing, depositing,
dumping or throwing or causing to be placed, deposited, dumped or thrown any
litter, not collected for commercial purposes, in an amount greater than one
hundred pounds in weight or twenty-seven cubic feet in size, but less than five
hundred pounds in weight or two hundred sixteen cubic feet in size is guilty of
a misdemeanor. Upon conviction he or she is subject to a fine f o not less
than $1,000 nor more than shall be fined $2,000, or in the
discretion of the court, may be sentenced to perform community service by
cleaning up litter from any public highway, road, street, alley or any other public
park or public property, or waters of the state, as designated by the court,
for not less than sixteen nor more than thirty-two hours, or both two
hundred hours.
(6)
Any person who violates the provisions of this section by placing, depositing,
dumping or throwing or causing to be placed, deposited, dumped or thrown any
litter in an amount greater than five hundred pounds in weight or two hundred
sixteen cubic feet in size or any amount which had been collected for
commercial purposes is guilty of a misdemeanor. Upon conviction, the person is
subject to a fine shall be fined not less than $2,500 or not
more than $25,000 or confinement in jail for not more than one year or both. In
addition, the violator may be guilty of creating or contributing to an open
dump as defined in section two, article fifteen, chapter twenty-two of this
code and subject to the enforcement provisions of section fifteen of said
that article.
(7)
Any person convicted of a second or subsequent violation of this section is
subject to double the authorized range of fines and community service for the
subsection violated.
(8)
The sentence of litter clean up shall be verified by environmental inspectors
from the Department of Environmental Protection. Any defendant receiving the
sentence of litter clean up shall provide, within a time to be set by the
court, written acknowledgment from an environmental inspector that the sentence
has been completed and the litter has been disposed of lawfully.
(9)
Any person who has been found by the court to have willfully failed to comply
with the terms of a litter clean up sentence imposed by the court pursuant to
this section is subject to, at the discretion of the court, double the amount
of the original fines and community service penalties originally ordered by the
court.
(10)
All law-enforcement agencies, officers and environmental inspectors shall
enforce compliance with this section within the limits of each agency's statutory authority.
(11)
No portion of this section restricts an owner, renter or lessee in the lawful
use of his or her own private property or rented or leased property or to
prohibit the disposal of any industrial and other wastes into waters of this
state in a manner consistent with the provisions of article eleven, chapter
twenty-two of this code. But if any owner, renter or lessee, private or
otherwise, knowingly permits any such of these materials or
substances to be placed, deposited, dumped or thrown in such a
location that high water or normal drainage conditions will cause any such
these materials or substances to wash into any waters of the state, it
is prima facie evidence that the owner, renter or lessee intended to violate the
provisions of this section: Provided, That if a landowner, renter or
lessee, private or otherwise, reports any placing, depositing, dumping or
throwing of these substances or materials upon his or her property to the
prosecuting attorney, county commission, the Division of Natural Resources or
the Department of Environmental Protection, the landowner, renter or lessee
will be presumed to not have knowingly permitted the placing, depositing,
dumping or throwing of the materials or substances.
(b)
Any indication of ownership found in litter shall be is prima
facie evidence that the person identified violated the provisions of this
section: Provided, That no
inference may be drawn solely from the presence of any logo, trademark, trade
name or other similar mass reproduced things of identifying character appearing
on the found litter.
(c)
Every person who is convicted of or pleads guilty to disposing of litter in
violation of subsection (a) of this section shall pay a civil penalty in the
sum of not less than $200 nor more than $1,000 of $2,000 as costs
for clean-up, investigation and prosecution of the case, in addition to any
other court costs that the court is otherwise required by law to impose upon a
convicted person.
The
clerk of the circuit court, magistrate court or municipal court in which these
additional costs are imposed shall, on or before the last day of each month,
transmit fifty percent of a civil penalty received pursuant to this section to the
State Treasurer for deposit in the State Treasury to the credit of a special
revenue fund to be known as the Litter Control Fund which is hereby
continued and was transferred to the Department of Environmental
Protection. Expenditures for purposes set forth in this section are not
authorized from collections but are to be made only in accordance with
appropriation and in accordance with the provisions of article three, chapter
twelve of this code and upon fulfillment of the provisions set forth in article
two, chapter five-a of this code. Amounts collected which are found from time
to time to exceed the funds needed for the purposes set forth in this article
may be transferred to other accounts or funds and designated for other purposes
by appropriation of the Legislature.
(d)
The remaining fifty percent of each civil penalty collected pursuant to this
section shall be transmitted to the county or regional solid waste authority in
the county where the litter violation occurred. Moneys shall be expended by the
county or regional solid waste authority for the purpose of litter prevention,
clean up and enforcement. The county commission shall cooperate with the county
or regional solid waste authority serving the respective county to develop a
coordinated litter control program pursuant to section eight, article four,
chapter twenty-two-c of this code.
(e)
The Commissioner of the Division of Motor Vehicles, upon registering a motor
vehicle or issuing an operator's or chauffeur's license, shall issue to the
owner or licensee, as the case may be, a summary of this section and section
fourteen, article fourteen, chapter seventeen-c of the code.
(f)
The Commissioner of the Division of Highways shall cause appropriate signs to
be placed at the state boundary on each primary and secondary road, and at
other locations throughout the state, informing those entering the state of the
maximum penalty provided for disposing of litter in violation of subsection (a)
of this section.
(g)
Any state agency or political subdivision that owns, operates or otherwise
controls any public area as may be designated by the secretary by rule
promulgated pursuant to subdivision (8), subsection (a), section three of this
article shall procure and place litter receptacles at its own expense upon its
premises and shall remove and dispose of litter collected in the litter
receptacles. After receiving two written
warnings from any law-enforcement officer or officers to comply with this
subsection or the rules of the secretary, any state agency or political
subdivision that fails to place and maintain the litter receptacles upon its
premises in violation of this subsection or the rules of the secretary shall be
fined $30 per day of the violation.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is
to increase the fines and community service hours for littering.
Strike-throughs indicate language
that would be stricken from a heading or the present law and underscoring
indicates new language that would be added.