BILL ANALYSIS
SB 1291
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Date of Hearing: August 21, 1995
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY
AND TOXIC MATERIALS
Bernie Richter, Chair
SB 1291 (Wright) - As Amended: July 7, 1995
SUBJECT
Hazardous Waste: facility permits; tiered permitting; household hazardous
waste collection facilities
DIGEST
2/3 vote required.
This bill impacts a number of code sections and major programs within the
generic cover area of "toxic and hazardous substances." The length of the
measure and the number of areas covered gives the impression that this is a
complicated and far-reaching measure. In reality, this measure, although
complex, is carefully crafted and very straight-forward (contrary to the
programs themselves).
This bill is designed to facilitate the Department of Toxic Substances
Control's (DTSC) Regulatory Structure Update (RSU) program. The bill augments
and clarifies the tiered permitting program established by AB 1772 (Polanco)
Chapter 1345, Statutes of 1992, as well as other aspects of the non-RCRA
program.
Existing law:
1) The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), enacted in 1976 as an
amendment to the Solid Waste Disposal Act, is the primary federal statute
regulating solid waste. Subtitle (C) of RCRA established the nation's
basic hazardous waste management program.
Under RCRA, persons which generate, transport, treat, store or dispose of
hazardous waste are subject to a number of regulatory requirements. The
California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has been
authorized by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to be the lead
agency for enforcing the provisions of RCRA. As an authorized state,
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California's regulations must be consistent with, and at least as strict
as, the federal regulations.
2) The Hazardous Waste Control Act, Chapter 6.5 of Health and Safety Code
(HSC), requires any person who stores, treats or disposes of hazardous
waste in excess of specified limits to obtain a hazardous waste facility
permit from the DTSC. Imposes a complex system of fees and a labyrinthine
set of regulations on persons who generate, store, treat, dispose of or
otherwise manage hazardous waste.
Requires the DTSC to adopt regulations that specify the criteria that
identify wastes which are hazardous wastes and to adopt a list of wastes
that have been determined to be hazardous.
Requires the DTSC to adopt analytic tests which must be used to determine
when a waste is a hazardous waste. Because DTSC has adopted tests which
are, in some instances, more stringent than the equivalent federal tests,
more types of wastes meet the definition of hazardous waste in California than
meet the federal definition. The result is that two classes of
hazardous waste have been created:
a) RCRA hazardous wastes regulated by both federal and state
programs, and
b) non-RCRA hazardous wastes regulated only by the state program.
Wastes in this category include most of the wastes subject to the
"Household Hazardous Waste program."
Requires DTSC to adopt standards and regulations which specify the
financial assurances required to be provided by the owner or operator of a
hazardous waste facility for responding to third-party damage claims and
for the costs of closure and subsequent maintenance.
Defines recyclable and recycled material and hazardous waste recycling.
Specifies, among other things, that specified recyclable materials, unless
granted a variance, are subject to the requirements of the hazardous waste
management program.
3) The Wright-Polanco-Lempert Hazardous Waste Treatment Reform Act of 1992
established the "tiered permitting" system which is applicable to
facilities that treat only nonRCRA and/or non-regulated RCRA waste. The
tiered permitting system consists of four levels of regulation that
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establish increasingly more stringent operating requirements and impose
significantly more costly permitting regimes. The tiers in ascending
order of complexity and associated costs are:
a) Conditionally exempt. This tier is applicable to small volume
treatment operations (less than 500 pounds or 55 gallons per month)
and very low hazard treatment activities such as silver recovery from
developing solutions, drum recycling, spent resin mixing and
neutralization of food processing wastes. Persons treating hazardous
wastes under this tier are regulated basically like hazardous waste
generators; however, they must notify DTSC of their treatment
activities and pay an annual fee to the department.
b) Conditionally authorized. This tier covers a wide variety of
treatment operations. In general, if a waste solution meets specific
concentrations limits and acidic content (pH) limits, and the
treatment operation also meets specified volume limits it falls into
this tier. Treatment operations may be used only for on-site wastes,
must be carried out in tanks and containers and must meet a number of
specified conditions. The facility is subject to inspections and
must conduct an environmental assessment, and must carry out
corrective action if contamination is found on the site.
c) Permit-by-rule. All on-site treatment activity of nonRCRA waste
that cannot otherwise be classified in the two lower tiers fall under
permit-by-rule. Regulatory requirements applicable to this tier are
similar to those that apply to treatment in the conditionally
authorized tier; HOWEVER, the owner/operators must also provide
certification by a professional consultant that the secondary
containment, closure plan and corrective action requirements are
being met.
d) Standardized permit. This tier applies to commercial off-site
facilities that treat nonRCRA wastes sent to them by hazardous waste
generators. The standardized permit is similar and as costly to
obtain as a regular hazardous waste facilities permit issued by DTSC
under the hazardous waste management program.
Exempts until December 31, 1994, a facility or transportable treatment
unit operating pursuant to permit-by-rule from standards and regulations
which specify the financial assurances required to be provided by the
owner or operator of a hazardous waste facility for responding to
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third-party damage claims and for the costs of closure and subsequent
maintenance (except as specified) until January 1, 1995. A conditionally
authorized generator is exempt, until December 31, 1994, from those
standards.
4) SB 1082 (Calderon), Chapter 418, Statutes of 1993, created the Unified
Hazardous Waste and Hazardous Materials Management Regulatory Program.
This program requires the Secretary for Environmental Protection to
implement this program in accordance with prescribed procedures and
requirements. The program is commonly referred to as the "Certified
Unified Program Agency" or CUPA.
a) Requires every county to apply to the secretary to be certified
to implement the unified program.
b) Permits a local agency which meets specified requirements to
apply to the secretary to implement the unified program.
c) Requires the CUPA in each jurisdiction to, among other things,
develop and implement a program which consolidates all permits or
other grants of authorization to the maximum extent feasible within
statutory constraints to consolidate, coordinate and make consistent
any local or regional regulations, ordinances, requirements or
guidance documents with the provisions of the Hazardous Waste
Management Act and program.
d) Permits a CUPA to incorporate as part of the unified program
within its jurisdiction the implementation and enforcement of "law"
which the agency is authorized to implement and enforce other than
those specified in this program.
5) The California Integrated Waste Management Act requires local governments
to prepare county-wide integrated waste management plans to handle and
dispose of the solid waste generated in their respective counties. Each
county-wide plan must include, among other things, a program for the safe
collection, recycling, treatment and disposal of hazardous waste that would
otherwise be placed in the municipal solid waste stream by homeowners.
To meet the requirements of the household hazardous waste elements in
solid waste plans, cities and counties may use any of a variety of methods
for collecting household hazardous waste and keeping it out of the main
solid waste stream. Among these are permanent household hazardous waste
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collection centers, curbside, door-to-door and residential pickup
services, centers for the collection of specified types of recyclable
materials (latex paints, used oil, batteries, etc.) and mobile and
temporary household hazardous waste collection facilities.
Curbside, door-to-door and residential pickup service vehicles are
authorized to haul the household hazardous wastes to a household hazardous
waste collection center. The vehicles are also exempt from the normal
requirements that apply to hazardous waste transport.
Exempts household hazardous waste collection centers from the requirement
to obtain a hazardous waste facilities permit if they accept only
specified types of household hazardous waste or manage specific wastes as
specified.
Exempts a person transporting household hazardous waste within specified
weight limits and conditionally exempts small quantity generators
transporting hazardous waste to an authorized waste collection facility
from certain requirements.
Authorizes businesses that are small quantity generators to transport
waste to household hazardous waste collection facilities operated under
PBR or a standardized permit, but prohibits such business from using
registered hazardous waste transporters to take this waste to such
facilities.
Prohibits landfill load-check programs and local agencies managing
abandoned wastes from delivering hazardous waste to a PBR or standardized
permit household collection facility because these facilities cannot
accepting waste from a registered waste hauler.
This bill makes a number of changes to several major program elements within
the Hazardous waste management program relative to California only wastes
(non-RCRA):
Tiered Permitting Program
1) Authorizes the DTSC to administratively convert a hazardous waste
facilities permit or a grant of interim status into authorization under a
Permit-by-rule (PBR), conditional authorization, or conditional exemption,
if the facility is not required to obtain a permit under the federal act
and the unit(s) in question meet the applicable conditions for
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authorization under the specific tier of the tiered permitting regime.
2) Establishes a process by which DTSC may, by regulation, add new activities
to the list of activities eligible for operation under the tiered
permitting program and requires DTSC to conduct a risk assessment and a
risk management evaluation of the specific activity and waste stream prior
to making additions to the two lower tiers of the program.
3) Delays the closure assurance requirement for persons operating under a PBR
or conditional authorization until January 1, 1996, and requires DTSC to
adopt emergency regulation by February 1, 1996, specifying closure
assurance requirements for these tiers.
4) Exempts persons operating under a PBR from the requirement to obtain
third-party liability coverage.
5) Deletes the requirement for generators conducting activities under more
than one of the three lower tiers in the tiered permitting program to pay
a separate fee for each tier.
6) Permits DTSC to accelerate the commencement of operation of treatment
activities under the two lowest tiers of the program as specified.
7) Permits persons subject to both tiered permitting and local publicly owned
treatment works (POTWs) requirements to operate pursuant only to the POTW
requirements, provided that those requirements are substantially similar
to those of the tiered permitting program and the POTW is included within
a CUPA.
8) Expands the existing exemption from the hazardous waste facility
permitting requirements for certain low-risk elementary neutralization
activities to include the elementary neutralization of waste waters
resulting from the food processing industry and requires DTSC to "study
the safety of elementary neutralization of acids and alkalis and report
the results to the Legislature as specified."
Standard Permitting Program
1) Authorizes DTSC to issue "series C" standardized storage permits for
non-RCRA hazardous waste held in surface impoundments for not more than 30
days, subject to certain conditions.
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2) Permits reactive, ignitable or extremely hazardous wastes to be managed
under the lowest level of standardized permitting (series C) if the other
criteria for series C are met.
3) Extends the date by which all standardized permit facilities currently
operating under interim status must obtain a final standardized permit.
Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facilities
Allows mobile household hazardous waste collection facilities and registered
hazardous waste transporters carrying certain types of hazardous waste to
transport hazardous waste to household hazardous waste collection facilities
(provided that they comply with manifesting and transporter registration
requirements).
Definition of Storage Facility
1) Requires persons operating pursuant to the transfer facility exemption to
place hazardous waste in containers only.
2) Allows generators to accumulate hazardous waste generated on-site in drip
pads (which are used by the wood preserving industry) and containment
buildings (used for hazardous waste storage) for up to 90 days.
Variance Process
1) Clarifies that DTSC may variance non-RCRA requirements which are
unimportant or insignificant in preventing or minimizing a potential
hazard to human health and safety and the environment.
2) Clarifies that DTSC shall take into consideration the conditions,
limitations, and other requirements included in the variance when
evaluating potential impacts on human health and safety and the
environment.
3) Clarifies that DTSC may modify or revoke a variance at any time.
Modification Procedures for Inactive Interim Status Facilities
Allows inactive interim status facilities that have notified DTSC of their
intent to close, to utilize the streamlined modification process allowed for
interim status facilities under the federal regulations for implementing
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changes at these inactive, closing facilities.
Cleanup Amendments
Makes non-substantive cleanup amendments to a number of sections in Chapter
6.5
FISCAL EFFECT
Minor, absorbable cost to DTSC. According to the bill analysis prepared by
the State Board of Equalization, the revenue loss attributable to this bill
would be approximately $1.6 million.
COMMENTS
Background: This bill is sponsored by the DTSC. The tiered permitting
program is now in its third year of implementation. According to DTSC, many
issues have been identified during its implementation that must be addressed
to correct problems and to further develop the program.
The bill as amended provides needed clarification and augmentation to the
tiered permitting program established by AB 1772, as well as to other aspects
of the non-RCRA program. Further, according to the sponsor, this measure will
bring California's program into alignment with recent amendments to the
federal RCRA program. The bill also requires DTSC to study more controversial
reforms and to report its findings to the Legislature.
Specifically, provision of the bill will among other things:
1) Enable facilities that complied with hazardous waste facility permitting
requirements prior to the implementation of the tiered permitting program
to transfer to the on-site tiered permitting program without having to
close the facility or be subjected to fees.
2) Enable DTSC to complete the development and adoption of regulations which
provide businesses with affordable, flexible options for providing
financial assurance to cover the cost of closing PBR and conditionally
authorized units.
3) Delete unworkable requirements for owner/operators relative to specific
insurance requirements because (according to DTSC) there are no
environmental liability policies available which are affordable for
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persons operating under PBR (typically smaller businesses with limited
financial resources).
4) Eliminate the duplicative permitting requirements between the Department
and the Publicly-Owned Treatment Works pretreatment program in
jurisdictions where a Certified Unified Program Agency has been formed.
5) Eliminate duplicative requirements for short lived impoundment programs.
Currently, these surface impoundments must meet waste discharge and
groundwater monitoring requirements and are regulated by both the regional
water quality control boards and DTSC. This amendment would give
generators that occasionally need to store large volumes of liquid
hazardous waste for short periods of time prior to treatment some
regulatory relief. For example, it would allow utility companies, that
periodically generate large volumes of contaminated waste water when
cleaning their boilers, to be regulated by DTSC under a series C permit
rather than a full permit (i.e., series C permits is less expensive).
DTSC believes that a standardized permit provides an appropriate and
adequate level of regulation.
6) Provides an extension to facilities currently operating under interim
status that is necessary to allow orderly completion, with adequate
review, of all standardized permits within the limited resources available
to DTSC. Failure to extend this deadline will force businesses, who are
operating under interim status and who are not issued a final permit by
October 1, 1995, to close their hazardous waste operations.
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7) Permits specified small quantity generators to use registered hazardous
waste transporters to transport their waste to a household hazardous waste
collection facility and allows landfill load-check programs and local
agencies managing abandoned wastes to deliver hazardous waste to a
household hazardous waste collection facility.
The Department states that the existing prohibition is unnecessary, and
actually prevents these generators from using the safest method of
transportation.
8) This bill also deals with a number of other aspects of the non-RCRA
program including standardized permitting, household hazardous waste
collection facilities, and variances.
Concern:
This bill, SB 1135 (Costa), and AB 1245 (Frusetta) modify Section 25123.3 of
the Health and Safety Code. AB 1245 specifically conforms California law to
federal law relating to the temporary storage of hazardous waste in transfer
facilities which are not permitted hazardous waste facilities (as specified)
by increasing the time period permitted to store such waste from six days (144
hours) to 10 days. AB 1245 was approved by this Committee and passed the
Senate Floor 40-0.
Author's amendment is solicited to provide assurance that if SB 1291, and/or
AB 1245 are signed into law, the provisions of SB 1135 relative to HSC section
25123.3 are controlling and the pertinent provisions of SB 1291 and AB 1245
are not to be chaptered out.
SPONSOR: Department of Toxic Substances Control
SUPPORT: Norcal Waste Systems
The Printed Circuit Alliance
Northern California Association of Metal Finishers
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.
The IT Corporation
OPPOSED: Sierra Club (unless amended)
Analysis prepared by: David C. Nunenkamp / aestm / 445-0991 8/20/95
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