View Daily Data Tracking History
View Bill Text
View Statement of Purpose / Fiscal Impact
H0539..............................................by ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS
SOLID WASTE ACT - Amends existing law to redefine Solid Waste Act
definitions of "industrial solid waste" and "solid waste" to clarify
exemptions for mineral processing wastes and other materials uniquely
associated with mining and mineral processing operations.
02/09 House intro - 1st rdg - to printing
02/10 Rpt prt - to Env Aff
H0539
|||| LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF IDAHO ||||
Fifty-fifth Legislature Second Regular Session - 2000
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
HOUSE BILL NO. 539
BY ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS COMMITTEE
1 AN ACT
2 RELATING TO THE SOLID WASTE FACILITIES ACT; AMENDING SECTION 39-7403, IDAHO
3 CODE, TO REDEFINE "INDUSTRIAL SOLID WASTE" AND "SOLID WASTE" TO CLARIFY
4 EXEMPTIONS FOR MINERAL PROCESSING WASTE AND OTHER MATERIALS UNIQUELY ASSO-
5 CIATED WITH MINING AND MINERAL PROCESSING OPERATIONS AND TO MAKE TECHNICAL
6 CORRECTIONS.
7 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Idaho:
8 SECTION 1. That Section 39-7403, Idaho Code, be, and the same is hereby
9 amended to read as follows:
10 39-7403. DEFINITIONS. As used in this chapter:
11 (1) "Active portion" means that part of a facility or unit that has
12 received or is receiving wastes and that has not been closed in accordance
13 with 40 CFR 258.60.
14 (2) "Agricultural wastes" means wastes generated on farms resulting from
15 the production of agricultural products including, but not limited to, manures
16 and carcasses of dead animals weighing each or collectively in excess of fif-
17 teen (15) pounds but do not include wastes that are classified as hazardous.
18 (3) "Applicant" means the owner or the operator with the owner's written
19 consent.
20 (4) "Aquifer" means a geological formation, group of formations, or a
21 portion of a formation capable of yielding significant quantities of ground
22 water to wells or springs.
23 (5) "Board" means the Idaho board of health and welfare.
24 (6) "Buffer zone" means that part of a facility that lies between the
25 active portion and the property boundary.
26 (7) "Clean soils and clean dredge spoils" means soils and dredge spoils
27 which are not hazardous wastes or problem wastes as defined in this section.
28 (8) "Commercial solid waste" means all types of solid waste generated by
29 stores, offices, restaurants, warehouses and other nonmanufacturing activi-
30 ties, excluding residential and industrial wastes.
31 (9) "Commercial solid waste facility" means a facility owned and operated
32 as an enterprise conducted with the intent of making a profit by any individ-
33 ual, association, firm, or partnership for the disposal of solid waste, but
34 excludes a facility owned or operated by a political subdivision, state or
35 federal agency, municipality or a facility owned or operated by any individ-
36 ual, association, firm or partnership exclusively for the disposal of solid
37 waste generated by such individual, association, firm or partnership.
38 (10) "Construction/demolition waste" means the waste building materials,
39 packaging and rubble resulting from construction, remodeling, repair and demo-
40 lition operations on pavements, houses, commercial buildings and other struc-
41 tures. Such waste includes, but is not limited to, bricks, concrete, other
42 masonry materials, soil, rock, lumber, road spoils, rebar, paving materials
43 and tree stumps. Noninert wastes and asbestos wastes are not considered to be
2
1 demolition waste for the purposes of this chapter.
2 (11) "Contaminate" means to allow discharge of a substance from a landfill
3 that would cause:
4 (a) The concentration of that substance in the ground water to exceed the
5 maximum contamination level (MCL) specified in 40 CFR 258.40, Idaho drink-
6 ing water standards; or
7 (b) A statistically significant increase in the concentration of that
8 substance in the ground water where the existing concentration of that
9 substance exceeds the maximum contamination level specified in paragraph
10 (a) of this subsection; or
11 (c) A statistically significant increase above background in the concen-
12 tration of a substance which:
13 (i) is not specified in paragraph (a) of this subsection; and
14 (ii) is a result of the disposal of solid waste; and
15 (iii) has been determined by the department to present a substantial
16 risk to human health or the environment in the concentrations found
17 at the point of compliance.
18 (12) "County" means any county in the state of Idaho.
19 (13) "Cover material" means soil or other suitable material that is used
20 to protect the active portion of the MSWLF unit.
21 (14) "Director" means the director of the Idaho department of health and
22 welfare.
23 (15) "Existing MSWLF unit" means any municipal solid waste landfill unit
24 that is receiving solid waste as of the applicable date specified in 40 CFR
25 258.1(e).
26 (16) "Facility" means all contiguous land and structures, buffer zones,
27 and other appurtenances and improvements on the land used for the disposal of
28 solid waste.
29 (17) "Floodplain" means the area encompassed by the one hundred (100) year
30 flood as defined by applicable federal emergency management agency (FEMA)
31 flood insurance maps or, if no map exists, then as defined in 40 CFR 258.11.
32 (18) "Ground water" means water below the land surface in a zone of satu-
33 ration.
34 (19) "Health district" means one (1) of the seven (7) district health
35 departments of the state of Idaho.
36 (20) "Holocene fault" means a fault characterized as a fracture or a zone
37 of fractures in any material along which strata on one (1) side have been dis-
38 placed with respect to that on the other side and holocene being the most
39 recent epoch of the quaternary period, extending from the end of the
40 pleistocene epoch to the present.
41 (21) "Household waste" means any solid waste, including garbage, trash and
42 sanitary waste in septic tanks, derived from households, including single and
43 multiple residences, hotels and motels, bunkhouses, ranger stations, crew
44 quarters, campgrounds, picnic grounds and day use recreation areas.
45 (22) "Industrial solid waste" means solid waste generated by manufacturing
46 or industrial processes that is not a hazardous waste regulated under subtitle
47 C of RCRA. Such waste may include, but is not limited to, waste resulting from
48 the following manufacturing processes: Eelectric power generation; fertilizer
49 and agricultural chemicals; food and related products and by-products
50 byproducts; inorganic chemicals; iron and steel manufacturing; leather and
51 leather products; nonferrous metals manufacturing/foundries; organic chemi-
52 cals; plastics and resins manufacturing; pulp and paper industry; rubber and
53 miscellaneous plastic products; stone, glass, clay and concrete products; tex-
54 tile manufacturing; transportation equipment; and water treatment. This term
55 does not include mining and mineral processing waste or oil and gas waste.
3
1 (23) "Inert wastes" means noncombustible, nonhazardous, nonputresible,
2 nonleaching solid wastes that are likely to retain their physical and chemical
3 structure under expected conditions of disposal, including resistance to bio-
4 logical attack.
5 (24) "Landfill" means an area of land or an excavation in which wastes are
6 placed for permanent disposal, and that is not a land application unit, sur-
7 face impoundment, injection well or waste pile.
8 (25) "Landspreading disposal facility" or "land application unit" means a
9 facility that applies sludges or other solid wastes onto or incorporates solid
10 waste into the soil surface, excluding manure spreading operations, at greater
11 than agronomic rates and soil conditioners and immobilization rates.
12 (26) "Lateral expansion" means a horizontal expansion of the waste bound-
13 aries of an existing MSWLF unit.
14 (27) "Leachate" means a liquid that has passed through or emerged from
15 solid waste and contains soluble, suspended or miscible materials removed from
16 such waste.
17 (28) "Limited purpose landfill" means a landfill that receives solid waste
18 of limited type with known and consistent composition other than wood wastes,
19 municipal solid waste, inert waste and construction/demolition waste.
20 (29) "Liquid waste" as defined in 40 CFR 258.28(c)(1).
21 (30) "Monofill" means a landfill which contains a specific waste whose
22 waste stream characteristics remain unchanged over time and may include spe-
23 cial wastes, problem wastes or other consistent characteristic wastes but do
24 not include wastes regulated under any other applicable regulations.
25 (31) "Municipal solid waste landfill unit (MSWLF)" means a discrete area
26 of land or an excavation that receives household waste, and that is not a land
27 application unit, surface impoundment, injection well, or waste pile, as those
28 terms are defined under 40 CFR 257.2. A MSWLF unit also may receive other
29 types of RCRA subtitle D wastes, such as commercial solid waste, nonhazardous
30 sludge, conditionally exempt small quantity generator waste and industrial
31 solid waste. Such a landfill may be publicly or privately owned. A MSWLF unit
32 may be a new MSWLF unit, an existing MSWLF unit or a lateral expansion.
33 (32) "New MSWLF unit" means any municipal solid waste landfill unit that
34 has not received waste prior to October 9, 1993, or prior to October 9, 1995,
35 if the MSWLF unit meets the conditions specified in 40 CFR 258.1(f)(1).
36 (33) "Open burning" means the combustion of solid waste without: (a) con-
37 trol of combustion air to maintain adequate temperature for efficient combus-
38 tion; (b) containment of the combustion reaction in an enclosed device to pro-
39 vide sufficient resident time and mixing for complete combustion; and (c) con-
40 trol of the emission of the combustion products.
41 (34) "Operator" means the person(s) responsible for the overall operation
42 of a facility or part of a facility.
43 (35) "Owner" means the person(s) who owns a facility or part of a facil-
44 ity.
45 (36) "Permeability" means the capacity of a material to transmit a liquid.
46 For the purposes of this chapter permeability is expressed in terms of hydrau-
47 lic conductivity of water in centimeters-per-second units of measurement.
48 (37) "Person" means an individual, association, firm, partnership, politi-
49 cal subdivision, public or private corporation, state or federal agency,
50 municipality, industry, or any other legal entity whatsoever.
51 (38) "Pile" or "waste pile" means any noncontainerized solid, nonflowing
52 waste that is accumulated for treatment or storage.
53 (39) "Plan of operation" means the written plan developed by an owner or
54 operator of a MSWLF unit detailing how the facility is to be operated during
55 its active life, during closure, and throughout the post closure period.
4
1 (40) "Point of compliance" means a vertical surface located at the hydrau-
2 lically downgradient intercept with the uppermost aquifer at which a release
3 from a waste management unit measured as change in constituent values will
4 trigger assessment monitoring. Point of compliance shall be used to define the
5 facility design, location and frequency of ground water monitoring wells and
6 corrective action.
7 (41) "Post closure" means the requirements placed upon the MSWLF unit
8 after closure to ensure their environmental safety for a thirty (30) year
9 period or until the site becomes stabilized in accordance with section
10 39-7416, Idaho Code.
11 (42) "Processing" means an operation conducted on solid waste to prepare
12 it for disposal.
13 (43) "Qualified professional" means a licensed professional geologist or
14 licensed professional engineer, as appropriate, holding current professional
15 registration in compliance with applicable provisions of the Idaho Code.
16 (44) "RCRA" means the resource conservation and recovery act (42 U.S.C.
17 sec. 6901 et seq.), as amended.
18 (45) "Run-off" means any rainwater, leachate, or other liquid that drains
19 over land from any part of a facility.
20 (46) "Run-on" means any rainwater, leachate, or other liquid that drains
21 over land onto any part of a facility.
22 (47) "Saturated zone" means that part of the earth's crust in which all
23 voids are filled with water.
24 (48) "Septage" means a semisolid consisting of settled sewage solids com-
25 bined with varying amounts of water and dissolved materials generated from a
26 septic tank system.
27 (49) "Sludge" means any solid, semisolid, or liquid waste generated from a
28 municipal, commercial, or industrial waste water treatment plant, water supply
29 treatment plant or air pollution control facility exclusive of the treated
30 effluent from a waste water wastewater treatment plant.
31 (50) "Solid waste" means any garbage or refuse, sludge from a waste water
32 wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution
33 control facility and other discarded material including solid, liquid, semi-
34 solid, or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial,
35 mining, and agricultural operations and from community activities, but does
36 not include solid or dissolved materials in domestic sewage, or solid or dis-
37 solved materials in irrigation return flows or industrial discharges that are
38 point sources subject to permit under 33 U.S.C. 1342, or source, special
39 nuclear, or by-product byproducts material as defined in the atomic energy act
40 of 1954, as amended (68 Stat. 923). These regulations shall not apply to the
41 following solid wastes:
42 (a) Overburden, waste dumps, and low-grade stockpiles from and other
43 materials uniquely associated with mining and mineral processing opera-
44 tions;
45 (b) Liquid wastes whose discharge or potential discharge is regulated
46 under federal, state or local water pollution permits;
47 (c) Hazardous wastes as designated in the hazardous waste management act,
48 chapter 44, title 39, Idaho Code;
49 (d) Wood waste used for ornamental, animal bedding, mulch and plant bed-
50 ding and road building purposes;
51 (e) Agricultural wastes, limited to manures and crop residues, returned
52 to the soils at agronomic rates;
53 (f) Clean soils and clean dredge spoils as otherwise regulated under sec-
54 tion 404 of the federal clean water act (PL 95-217);
55 (g) Septage taken to a sewage treatment plant permitted by either the
5
1 U.S. environmental protection agency or the department;
2 (h) Radioactive wastes, defined in the radiation and nuclear materials
3 act, chapter 30, title 39, Idaho Code; and
4 (i) Wood debris resulting from the harvesting of timber and the disposal
5 of which is permitted under chapter 1, title 38, Idaho Code.
6 (51) "Special waste" means those wastes which require special treatment or
7 handling after it arrives at the disposal site. The term includes, but is not
8 limited to, asbestos containing material, petroleum contaminated soils, low-
9 level PCB containing material, low-level dioxin containing material and uncut
10 tires.
11 (52) "Statistically significant" means significant as determined by ANOVA
12 analysis of variance as applied within 40 CFR 258.53(h)(2) or as provided by
13 40 CFR 258.53(g)(5).
14 (53) "Uppermost aquifer" means the geological formation nearest the natu-
15 ral ground surface that is an aquifer as well as lower aquifers that are
16 hydraulically interconnected with this aquifer within the facility's property
17 boundary.
18 (54) "Waste management unit boundary" means a vertical surface located at
19 the hydraulically downgradient limit of the unit. This vertical surface
20 extends down into the uppermost aquifer.
21 (55) "Water quality standard" means a standard set for maximum allowable
22 contamination in surface waters and ground water as set forth in the water
23 quality standards for waters for the state of Idaho (IDAPA 16.01.2001).
24 (56) "Wetlands" as defined in 40 CFR 232.2(r).
25 (57) "Wood waste" means solid waste consisting of wood pieces or particles
26 generated as a by-product byproduct or waste from the manufacturing of wood
27 products, handling and storage of raw materials and trees and stumps. This
28 includes, but is not limited to, sawdust, chips, shavings, bark, pulp, hog
29 fuel and log yard waste, but does not include wood pieces or particles con-
30 taining chemical preservatives such as creosote, pentachlorophenol, or copper-
31 chrome-arsenate.
32 Undefined terms shall be given their usual and ordinary meaning within the
33 context of the provisions of this chapter.
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE
RS 09793
The Idaho Solid Waste Facilities Act (Chapter 74, title 39) was
enacted in 1992 to provide a framework for the location, design,
operation and monitoring of solid waste facilities. The act
excludes mining waste from the definition of "industrial solid
waste" and specifically provides that rules developed under the
act shall not apply to "overburden, waste dumps and low grade
stockpiles from mining operations".
A question has arisen whether mining wastes not included in the
specific exemption should be regulated under this act. This
legislation clarifies the situation by stating that wastes that
are unique to mining and mineral processing will not be regulated
under the provisions of the act.
Passage of this legislation will not exempt mining wastes from
regulation. Those wastes would, rather, be regulated under the
provisions of other state and federal laws.
FISCAL IMPACT
No additional money or personnel will be required to implement
this legislation.
Contact
Name: Jack Lyman
Idaho Mining Association
Phone: 342-0031
STATEMENT OF PURPOSE/FISCAL NOTE H0539