BILL NUMBER: SB 1249 AMENDED
BILL TEXT
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 24, 2014
AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY JUNE 10, 2014
AMENDED IN SENATE MAY 27, 2014
AMENDED IN SENATE APRIL 22, 2014
INTRODUCED BY Senator Hill
FEBRUARY 20, 2014
An act to add Sections 25150.9, 25150.9.1, and 25150.9.2 to the
Health and Safety Code, relating to hazardous waste.
LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST
SB 1249, as amended, Hill. Hazardous waste: shredder waste.
(1) The California Integrated Waste Management Act of 1989
requires materials that require special handling, as defined, to be
removed from major appliances and vehicles in which they are
contained before crushing for transport or transferring to a baler or
shredder for recycling.
The hazardous waste control laws prohibit a person who is not a
certified appliance recycler from removing materials that require
special handling from major appliances and imposes specified
requirements regarding transporting, delivering, or selling discarded
major appliances to a scrap recycling facility. The department
is authorized to grant a variance from the requirements of the
hazardous waste control laws, under specified conditions and if the
department makes one of specified findings. A
violation of the hazardous waste control laws is a crime.
This bill would authorize, until January 1, 2017, the Department
of Toxic Substances Control, in consultation with the Department of
Resources Recycling and Recovery, the State Water Resources Control
Board, and affected local air quality management districts, to adopt
regulations establishing alternative management standards for a metal
shredding facility for hazardous waste management activities within
the jurisdiction of the Department of Toxic Substances Control, that
would apply in lieu of the hazardous waste management standards if
the department performs specified actions. The bill would include
among those department actions preparing a preliminary analysis and a
final analysis evaluating the hazardous waste management activities
to which the alternative management standards would apply. The bill
would require the department to provide notice that it proposes to
adopt alternative management standards. The bill would prohibit the
department from adopting alternative management standards that are
less stringent than applicable standards under federal law and would
require treated metal shredder waste to be disposed of in a specified
manner. The bill would require the department to complete the
analysis of the hazardous waste management activities and the
subsequent regulatory action before January 1, 2017, and would make
all hazardous waste determinations and policies, procedures, or
guidance issued by the department before January 1, 2014, relating to
metal shredder waste or treated metal shredder waste inoperative
once the department has taken regulatory action
completed that analysis and either rescinds the conditional
nonhazardous waste classification of that waste or adopts alternative
management standards pursuant to this bill .
Because a violation of these requirements would be a crime, this bill
would impose a state-mandated local program.
The bill would authorize the department to collect an annual fee
from metal shredding facilities at a rate sufficient to cover the
costs of the department to implement these provisions.
(2) The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse
local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the
state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that
reimbursement.
This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this
act for a specified reason.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
SECTION 1. The Legislature finds and declares all of the
following:
(a) Before 1984, all metal shredder waste was considered not to be
hazardous waste and was disposed of or used as alternative daily
cover in municipal solid waste landfills.
(b) In 1984, California deemed metal shredder waste
due to the adoption of new state hazardous waste
regulations, metal shredder waste was classified as a non-RCRA
hazardous waste, or California hazardous waste, due to the presence
of lead, cadmium, copper, and zinc at levels above the state's
regulatory thresholds, as well as polychlorinated biphenyls in
concentrations that, on some occasions, exceeded either the federal
or the California regulatory thresholds, or both.
(c) Between 1986 and 1992, the Toxic Substances Control Division
of the Department of Health Services, which was the predecessor to
the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), issued conditional
nonhazardous waste classifications pursuant to subdivision (f)
of Section 66260.200 of Title 22 of the California Code of
Regulations , also referred to as "f letters," to seven
shredder facilities in California that treated their metal shredder
waste to affix the hazardous components into waste.
stabilize the metals in the waste and reduce their
solubility. Once a facility operator received a nonhazardous
waste classification, treated metal shredder waste was no longer
regulated as a hazardous waste at the facility.
waste.
(d) In early 2001, DTSC began an initiative to evaluate the
adequacy of the metal shredder waste policy and compliance with the
conditional nonhazardous waste classifications, which included new
sampling and analysis. The draft report from that
initiative recommended rescinding the conditional nonhazardous waste
classifications. However, DTSC took no further action.
(e) In 2002, DTSC conducted an auto shredder initiative that found
that both treated and untreated shredder waste exceeded state
regulatory thresholds for lead, zinc, and cadmium. The report
recommended that the DTSC policy and procedure that allowed the
exemption for this waste be rescinded and that the waste stream be
regulated as hazardous waste. No action was taken at that time.
(f) In 2002, DTSC issued an "imminent and substantial endangerment"
order against Pacific Steel Inc., because of dust that blew from
contaminated piles of waste stored by Pacific Steel Inc. out in the
open. The contaminated piles, which contained polychlorinated
biphenyls and toxic metals such as lead, zinc, and copper, polluted
and threatened to pollute the air and water near the facility. In
2011, DTSC issued a remedial action order against Pacific Steel Inc.
to clean up the site.
(g)
(e) In 2008, DTSC sent letters to operators of metal
shredder facilities expressing the department's intention to repeal
the conditional authorization that allows metal shredder waste to be
classified as a nonhazardous waste. However, DTSC has not,
to date, rescinded did not rescind the
conditional waste classifications.
(h) In 2009, the California Integrated Waste Management Board, now
known as the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, or
CalRecycle, issued the "Alternative Daily Cover White Paper." The
paper states that, " s]taff with DTSC have indicated that metal
shredder waste] treatment is not effective, the material should be
considered hazardous, and metal shredder waste] should be required to
be disposed of] in Class I landfills. DTSC staff also indicates that
metal shredder waste] feedstocks are variable and have changed in
the last 20 years (more electronic components, white goods,
chlorinated plastics). Sampling is costly, and it is difficult to
obtain representative samples of metal shredder waste]."
(i) In 2011, DTSC settled an enforcement action against SA
Recycling, LLC, which is jointly owned by Sims Metal Management Ltd.
and Adams Steel LLC, for $2.9 million. The action alleged that SA
Recycling, LLC violated air pollution laws when an explosion at its
Port of Los Angeles metal shredding facility at Terminal Island
destroyed its air pollution control system in May of 2007, and the
company continued operating for weeks without proper equipment. As a
result, approximately 4.4 tons of toxic particulate matter were
released into the air, and migrated to bay waters and the community
of Wilmington, putting local residents and the environment at risk.
(j) In January 2012, the Redwood City, California, metal shredding
location of Sims Metal Management was cited by the United States
Environmental Protection Agency for polluting the San Francisco Bay.
Inspectors found the company had unlawfully discharged
polychlorinated biphenyls, lead, copper, mercury, and zinc into
Redwood Creek, a tributary of San Francisco Bay. The United States
Environmental Protection Agency found polychlorinated biphenyl at
levels of 195 times of the accepted levels and lead at levels of more
than 10 times of the accepted levels in sediment near where the
shredding yard meets Redwood Creek. This enforcement action was
resolved in 2013.
(k) Additionally, there have been several fires in the last
several years at the Sims Metal Management Redwood City facility that
have caused the Bay Area Air Quality Management District to ask
residents to stay inside. Two fires occurred in November and December
of 2013, raising concerns about the proximity of this facility to
residents. In the fire in December of 2013, no one was reported
injured by the smoke or fire, which was limited to a debris pile
about 900 square feet in area and 30 feet tall, but the noxious odor
produced by the blaze was detected as far south as South San Jose and
across the San Francisco Bay in Oakland and Berkeley.
(l) Sims Metal Management's recycling facilities in Hayward and
San Francisco experienced fires in 2009 and 2010, respectively,
according to records from the Bay Area Air Quality Management
District.
(m) In 2011, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service
investigated Sims Metal Management for allowing fibrous automobile
shredder residue to blow or drift into wetlands around Bair Island,
800 feet downwind from the Redwood City facility.
(n) DTSC has failed to revoke the nonhazardous waste
classifications for treated shredder waste granted decades ago to the
metal shredding industry despite a 2001 legal opinion by DTSC
attorneys, which called the exemption "outdated and legally
incorrect," and warnings from the department's scientists that this
waste could become hazardous during the shredding process.
(o)
(f) It is the intent of the Legislature that the
conditional nonhazardous waste classifications
classifications, as documented through the historical "f
letters, " be revoked and that metal shredding
facilities be thoroughly evaluated and regulated to ensure
adequate protection of the human health and the environment.
SEC. 2. Section 25150.9 is added to the Health and Safety Code, to
read:
25150.9. (a) The Legislature finds and declares that this section
is intended to address the unique circumstances associated with the
operation of metal shredding facilities, and the generation and
management of wastes generated by metal shredding facilities. The
Legislature further declares that this section does not set a
precedent applicable to the management, including disposal, of other
hazardous wastes.
(b) For purposes of this section, "metal shredding facility" means
an operation that uses a shredding technique to process end-of-life
vehicles, waste appliances, and other forms of
scrap metal to facilitate the separation and sorting of ferrous
metals, nonferrous metals, and other recyclable materials from
nonrecyclable materials that are components of the end-of-life
vehicles, waste appliances, and other forms of
scrap metal objects containing material to be
discarded. objects. "Metal shredding facility"
does not include a feeder yard, a metal crusher, or a metal baler
, if that facility does not otherwise conduct metal shredding
operations .
(c) The department, in consultation with the Department of
Resources Recycling and Recovery, the State Water Resources Control
Board, and affected local air quality management districts, may adopt
regulations establishing management standards for metal shredding
facilities for hazardous waste management activities within the
department's jurisdiction as an alternative to the requirements
specified in this chapter and the regulations adopted pursuant to
this chapter, if the department does all of the following:
(1) Prepares an analysis of the activities to which the
alternative management standards will apply pursuant to subdivision
(d). The department shall first prepare the analysis as a preliminary
analysis and make it available to the public at the same time that
the department gives notice, pursuant to Section 11346.4 of the
Government Code, that it proposes to adopt the alternative management
standards. The department shall include in the notice a statement
that the department has prepared a preliminary analysis and a
statement concerning where a copy of the preliminary analysis can be
obtained. The information in the preliminary analysis shall be
updated and the department shall make the analysis available to the
public as a final analysis not less than 10 working days before the
date that the regulation is adopted.
(2) Demonstrates at least one of the conclusions set forth in
paragraphs (1) to (4), inclusive, of subdivision (e).
(3) Imposes, as may be necessary, conditions and limitations as
part of the alternative management standards that ensure that the
hazardous waste management activity to which the alternative
management standards will apply will not pose a significant potential
hazard to human health or safety or to the environment.
(d) Before the department gives notice of a proposal to adopt the
alternative management standards pursuant to subdivision (c), and
before the department adopts the regulation, the department shall
evaluate the operative environmental and public health regulatory
oversight of metal shredding facilities, identifying activities that
need to be addressed by the alternative management standards, or
other advisable regulatory or statutory changes, and shall evaluate
the hazardous waste management activities and prepare, as required by
paragraph (1) of subdivision (c), an analysis that addresses all of
the following aspects of the activity, to the extent that the
alternative management standards can affect these aspects of the
activity:
(1) The types of hazardous waste and the estimated amounts of each
hazardous waste that are managed as part of the activity and the
hazards to human health or safety or to the environment posed by
reasonably foreseeable mismanagement of those hazardous wastes and
their hazardous constituents. The estimate of the amounts of each
hazardous waste that are managed as part of the activity shall be
based upon information reasonably available to the department.
(2) The complexity of the activity, and the amount and complexity
of operator training, equipment installation and maintenance, and
monitoring that are required to ensure that the activity is conducted
in a manner that safely and effectively manages each hazardous
waste.
(3) The chemical or physical hazards that are associated with the
activity and the degree to which those hazards are similar to, or
different from, the chemical or physical hazards that are associated
with the production processes that are carried out in the facilities
that produce the hazardous waste that is managed as part of the
activity.
(4) The types of accidents that might reasonably be foreseen to
occur during the management of particular types of hazardous waste
streams as part of the activity, the likely consequences of those
accidents, and the reasonably available actual accident history
associated with the activity.
(5) The types of locations where the activity may be carried out,
an estimate of the number of these locations, and the types of
hazards that may be posed by proximity to the land uses described in
Section 25227. The estimate of the number of locations where the
activity may be carried out shall be based upon information
reasonably available to the department.
(e) The department shall not give notice proposing the adoption
of, and the department shall not adopt, a regulation pursuant to
subdivision (c) unless it first demonstrates at least one of the
following, for each requirement that the alternative
management standards are intended to replace, using the
information developed in the analysis prepared pursuant to
subdivision (d):
(1) The requirements that the alternative management standards
replace are not significant or important in either of the following
situations:
(A) Preventing or mitigating potential hazards to human health or
safety or to the environment posed by the activity.
(B) Ensuring that the activity is conducted in compliance with
other applicable requirements of this chapter and the regulations
adopted pursuant to this chapter.
(2) A requirement is imposed and enforced by another public agency
that provides protection of human health and safety and the
environment that is as effective as, and equivalent to, the
protection provided by the requirement, or requirements, that the
alternative management standards replace.
(3) Conditions or limitations imposed as part of the alternative
management standards will provide protection of human health and
safety and the environment equivalent to the requirement, or
requirements, that the alternative management standards replace.
(4) Conditions or limitations imposed as part of the alternative
management standards accomplish the same regulatory purpose as the
requirement, or requirements, that the alternative management
standards replace, but at less cost or with greater administrative
convenience, and without increasing potential risks to human health
or safety or to the environment.
(f) The department shall not adopt alternative management
standards pursuant to this section if those standards are less
stringent than the standards that would otherwise apply under the
federal act.
(g) Nothing in the alternative management standards authorized by
this section is intended to duplicate or conflict with other laws,
rules, or regulations adopted by other state agencies or affected
local air quality management districts. The department shall, as much
as possible, align the alternative management standards with the
laws, rules, and regulations of other state agencies or affected
local air quality management districts.
(h) The owner or operator of a metal shredding facility that may
be subject to the alternative management standards shall provide to
the department all information and data determined by the department
to be relevant to the evaluation and preparation of the analysis
required by paragraphs (1) to (5), inclusive, of subdivision (d).
(i) The alternative management standards adopted by the department
pursuant to this section may, to the extent it is consistent with
the standards that would otherwise apply under the federal act, allow
for treated metal shredder waste to be classified and managed as
nonhazardous waste, provided that the analysis prepared pursuant to
subdivision (d) demonstrates that classification and management as
hazardous waste is not necessary to prevent or mitigate potential
hazards to human health or safety or to the environment posed by the
treated metal shredder waste.
(j) (1) Notwithstanding Sections 25189.5 and 25201, treated metal
shredder waste shall be disposed of in either a class I hazardous
waste landfill or, if the management standards adopted by the
department pursuant to this section result in it being classified as
a nonhazardous waste, as specified by the alternative management
standards.
(2) If the alternative management standards adopted by the
department pursuant to this section result in treated metal shredder
waste being classified as nonhazardous waste and deem it appropriate,
the material may be used as alternative daily cover or for
beneficial reuse pursuant to Section 41781.3 of the Public Resources
Code and its implementing regulations.
(3) Upon the department's final regulatory action required in
regard to the consideration of alternative management standards
pursuant to this section, the current disposal and beneficial use
practices determinations allowed pursuant to the hazardous waste
determinations issued by the department before January 1, 2014, shall
cease to apply.
(j) (1) The disposal of treated metal shredder waste shall be
regulated pursuant to this chapter and the regulations adopted
pursuant to this chapter, unless alternative management standards are
adopted by the department pursuant to this section.
(2) If the alternative management standards adopted by the
department pursuant to this section result in treated metal shredder
waste being classified as nonhazardous waste, the material may be
managed in either of the following manners:
(A) It may be used as alternative daily cover or for beneficial
reuse pursuant to Section 41781.3 of the Public Resources Code and
the regulations adopted to implement that section.
(B) It may be placed in a unit that meets the waste discharge
requirements issued pursuant to Division 7 (commencing with Section
13000) of the Water Code that allow for discharges of designated
waste, as defined in Section 13173 of the Water Code, or of treated
metal shredder waste.
(3) This section does not limit the use of treated metal shredder
waste as alternative daily cover pursuant to Section 41781.3 of the
Public Resources Code and the regulations adopted to implement that
section, or for other authorized beneficial uses if that use is made
under the authority of the hazardous waste determinations governing
metal shredder waste issued by the department before January 1, 2014,
and that use is before the department does either of the following:
(A) Rescinds the conditional nonhazardous waste classifications
issued pursuant to Section 25143 with regard to treated metal
shredder waste.
(B) Completes the adoption of alternative management standards
pursuant to this section.
(k) The department shall complete the analysis described in
paragraph (1) of subdivision (c) and subsequent regulatory action
before January 1, 2017. All hazardous waste determinations and
policies, procedures, or guidance issued by the department before
January 1, 2014, governing or related to the generation, treatment,
and management of metal shredder waste or treated metal shredder
waste shall be inoperative and have no further effect once the
department has taken the required regulatory action.
completes its analysis pursuant to subdivision (c) and
takes one of the following actions:
(1) Rescinds the conditional nonhazardous waste classifications
issued pursuant to Section 25143 with regard to that waste.
(2) Adopts alternative management standards pursuant to this
section.
(l) The authority of the department to adopt original regulations
pursuant to this section shall remain in effect only until January 1,
2017, unless a later enacted statute, which is enacted before
January 1, 2017, deletes or extends that date. This subdivision does
not invalidate any regulation adopted pursuant to this section before
the expiration of the department's authority.
(m) A regulation adopted pursuant to this section on or before
January 1, 2017, shall continue in force and effect after that date,
until repealed or revised by the department.
SEC. 3. Section 25150.9.1 is added to the Health and Safety Code,
to read:
25150.9.1. The department is authorized to collect an annual fee
from all metal shredding facilities that are subject to the
requirements of this chapter or to the alternative management
standards adopted pursuant to Section 25150.9. The department shall
establish and adopt by regulation a fee schedule that is set at a
rate sufficient to reimburse the department's costs to implement this
chapter as applicable to metal shredder facilities. The fee schedule
established by the department may be updated periodically as
necessary and shall provide for the assessment of no more than the
reasonable costs of the department to implement this chapter.
SEC. 4. Section 25150.9.2 is added to the Health and Safety Code,
to read:
25150.9.2. If treated metal shredder waste is accepted by a solid
waste landfill that manages and disposes of the treated metal
shredder waste in accordance with the alternative management
standards adopted by the department pursuant to Section 25150.9, the
treated metal shredder waste, upon acceptance by the solid waste
landfill, shall thereafter be deemed to be a solid waste, and not a
hazardous waste, for purposes of this chapter and Section 40191 of
the Public Resources Code.
25150.9.2. Treated metal shredder waste that meets
both of the following conditions shall be deemed to be a solid waste
for the purposes of this chapter and Section 40191 of the Public
Resources Code:
(a) The waste is accepted by a solid waste landfill for disposal
or for use as alternative daily cover or other beneficial uses.
(b) The management of that waste complies with the alternative
management standards adopted by the department pursuant to Section
25150.9.
SEC. 5. No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to
Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because
the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school
district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or
infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty
for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the
Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the
meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California
Constitution.