Report Title:
Recyclable Materials; Hazardous Waste Use; Regulation
Description:
Requires DOH to adopt rules to regulate hazardous waste-derived products, including recyclable materials. Establishes a temporary prohibition on the manufacture and import into the State of hazardous waste-derived products until the rules are adopted. (SB2679 HD1)
|
THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
2679 |
|
TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2006 |
S.D. 1 |
|
|
STATE OF HAWAII |
H.D. 1 |
|
|
|
A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to hazardous waste.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that since Congress passed the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act in 1976, the cost of disposing hazardous substances has increased more than fivefold. As a result, businesses are always looking for ways to dispose of industrial by-products in more cost-effective ways. One common cost-cutting practice is for businesses to recycle their industrial by-products into agricultural products like fertilizers.
An example of this process was reported in the article, "Fear in the Fields: How Hazardous Wastes Become Fertilizer," in The Seattle Times on July 4, 1997. The article describes a trucker picking up a load of gray, toxic ash from a metal processing plant in California to transport to Nevada. The ash load is marked "hazardous waste" as it is transported to Nevada, but as the truck crosses the Nevada state line, the ash is considered "fertilizer ingredients" rather than "hazardous waste." Once in Nevada, the waste is delivered to a factory in Reno, treated to remove part of the heavy metals, blended with other materials, and sold to farmers in, among other places, California.
This practice is legal. Fertilizer and animal feed are not regulated by the federal government, and to the degree it is regulated, it is regulated on a state-by-state basis. Most farmers and home gardeners have no idea that they are putting recycled hazardous wastes on their crops when they apply fertilizers, and although there are limits on the amount of additives that can be added to newly manufactured products like paint or concrete, those same additives have no limits when used for fertilizers. For example, there are limits on the amount of lead used in a can of paint; however, there are no limits on how much lead can be used in fertilizer.
The purpose of this Act is to:
(1) Require the director of health to adopt rules to develop and implement a regulatory program for hazardous waste-derived products, such as fertilizers, agricultural minerals, soil amendments, auxiliary soil and plant substances, liming material, and animal feed; and
(2) Establish a temporary prohibition on the manufacture and import into the State of hazardous waste-derived products, which prohibition shall remain effective until the foregoing rules are adopted.
SECTION 2. Chapter 342J, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:
"§342J-A Waste-derived products; standards; rules. (a) Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, no later than July 1, 2009, the director shall adopt rules under chapter 91 to develop and implement a regulatory program for waste-derived products that:
(1) Incorporates more stringent standards than the applicable standards established by the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Association of American Plant Food Control Officials;
(2) Limits imports of waste-derived products, recyclable materials, and hazardous substances to those that meet the more stringent standards;
(3) Informs a consumer of the presence of any hazardous or waste-derived substance in a fertilizer; and
(4) Regulates recyclable materials, even if recycling involves the use, reuse, or return of the materials to the original process. For purposes of this section, the following recyclable materials shall be deemed to be hazardous waste:
(A) Materials that are identified as:
(i) RCRA hazardous waste; or
(ii) Non-RCRA hazardous waste;
(B) Materials used in a manner constituting disposal; or
(C) Materials used to produce products that are applied to the land including materials used to produce fertilizers, agricultural minerals, soil amendments, auxiliary soil and plant substances, liming material, and animal feed; or
(D) Materials used to produce food for domestic, livestock, wildlife, or aquatic animals;
provided that the department may exclude paragraph (4)(B) materials that are non-RCRA hazardous waste from regulation.
(b) For purposes of this section:
"Fertilizer" means a substance containing one or more recognized plant nutrients, which substance is:
(1) Used for its plant nutrient content; or
(2) Designated for use or is claimed to have value in promoting plant growth, including animal and vegetable manure, and commercial, bulk, custom, and specialty fertilizer.
"Hazardous substance" means any liquid, solid, gas, or sludge, including any material, substance, product, commodity, or waste, regardless of quantity, that exhibits any of the characteristics or criteria of hazardous waste, as described in rules adopted pursuant to chapter 91, regardless of whether the substance is waste or virgin material as defined under state or federal law.
"Liming material" means all suitable materials containing calcium or magnesium in the chemical form, physical condition, and quantity capable of neutralizing soil acidity, which shall include, but need not be limited to, limestone, burnt lime, marl, and industrial by-product meeting the State's standards established under this section.
"Non-RCRA hazardous waste" means any hazardous waste that is:
(1) Not identified as an RCRA hazardous waste;
(2) Regulated in the State;
(3) A hazardous substance; or
(4) Identified, pursuant to regulations adopted by the department, as a non-RCRA hazardous waste.
"RCRA" means the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (Title 42, United States Code).
"Recyclable material" means a hazardous waste, including any hazardous waste identified in the definition of "waste-derived product", that is capable of being recycled, including:
(1) A residue;
(2) Spent material, including a used or spent stripping or plating solution or etchant;
(3) A material that is contaminated to such an extent that it can no longer be used for the purpose for which it was originally purchased or manufactured;
(4) A by-product identified by the department as "hazardous waste from specific sources" or "hazardous waste from nonspecific sources"; and
(5) Any retrograde material that has not been used, distributed, or reclaimed through treatment by the original manufacturer or owner by the following dates:
(A) One year after the date when the material became a retrograde material; and
(B) If the material has been returned to the original manufacturer, one year after the material is returned to the original manufacturer.
"Soil amendment" means any substance that is intended to improve the physical characteristics of the soil, except composted materials, fertilizers, liming materials, animal manures, vegetable manures, food wastes, food processing wastes, and materials exempted by rule.
"Waste-derived product" means any fertilizers, agricultural minerals, soil amendments, auxiliary soil and plant substances, liming material, and animal feed, derived in whole or in part from:
(1) Any waste identified as a hazardous waste in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (chapter 1, subchapter I, part 261, Code of Federal Regulations and its appropriate appendices); provided that a hazardous waste regulated in the State is presumed to be hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act unless the department determines otherwise pursuant to rules adopted under chapter 91;
(2) Any hazardous waste that is regulated by the State, including but not limited to:
(A) Hazardous waste as defined in section 342J-2; or
(B) Any hazardous waste identified as non-RCRA hazardous waste pursuant to rules adopted by the department under chapter 91;
(3) Solid waste as defined in section 342G-1; or
(4) Any hazardous substance as defined in this section;
provided that a waste-derived product may be derived from recyclable material, even if recycling involves the use, reuse, or return of the materials to the original process."
SECTION 3. Waste-derived products; temporary prohibition. From January 1, 2007 through June 30, 2009, no person shall manufacture or import into the State any waste-derived product, as defined under section 342J-A, Hawaii Revised Statutes.
SECTION 4. In codifying the new sections added by section 2 of this Act, the revisor of statutes shall substitute appropriate section numbers for the letters used in designating the new sections in this Act.
SECTION 5. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.