BILL ANALYSIS Ó SB 1249 SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY Senator Jerry Hill, Chair 2013-2014 Regular Session BILL NO: SB 1249 AUTHOR: Hill AMENDED: April 22, 2014 FISCAL: Yes HEARING DATE: April 30, 2014 URGENCY: No CONSULTANT: Rachel Machi Wagoner SUBJECT : HAZARDOUS WASTE: SHREDDER WASTE SUMMARY : Existing law : 1) Under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) of 1976, governs the disposal of hazardous waste: a) Through regulation, sets standards for the treatment, storage, transport, tracking and disposal of hazardous waste in the United States. b) Authorizes states to carry out many of the functions of the federal law through their own hazardous waste laws if such programs have been approved by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA). 2) Under the California Hazardous Waste Control Act (HWCA) of 1972: a) Establishes the Hazardous Waste Control program. b) Regulates the appropriate handling, processing and disposal of hazardous and extremely hazardous waste to protect the public, livestock, and wildlife from hazards to health and safety. c) Implements federal tracking requirements for the handling and transportation of hazardous waste from the point of waste generation to the point of ultimate disposition. SB 1249 Page 2 d) Establishes a system of fees to cover the costs of operating the hazardous waste management program. e) Authorizes the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) to enforce federal law and regulations under RCRA. f) Requires DTSC to grant and review permits and enforce HWCA requirements for hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facilities. 3) Under the Integrated Waste Management Act, 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. This bill : 1) Requires DTSC to conduct a preliminary analysis and a final analysis evaluating the hazardous waste management activities of metal shredding facilities. 2) Authorizes DTSC, in consultation with other state entities, to adopt regulations establishing alternative management standards for a metal shredding facility, including activities conducted within the boundaries of a metal shredding facility, and for the generation, storage, transportation, and disposal of metal shredder residue and treated metal shredder residue, as defined, that would apply in lieu of the hazardous waste management standards if DTSC performs specified actions. 3) Requires DTSC to provide notice that it proposes to adopt alternative management standards. 4) Prohibits DTSC from adopting management standards that are less stringent than applicable standards under federal law and would require metal shredder residue and treated metal shredder residue to be disposed of in a specified manner. 5) Makes all hazardous waste determinations and policies, procedures, or guidance issued by the department before January 1, 2014, inoperative on January 1, 2017. SB 1249 Page 3 6) Authorizes DTSC to collect an annual fee from metal shredding facilities at a rate sufficient to cover the costs of the department relating to metal shredding facilities, metal shredder residue, or treated metal shredder residue, as specified. COMMENTS : 1)Purpose of Bill . The author argues that metal and recycling facilities operating in California pose a distinct risk to public health and the environment and the hazards associated with these operations are not adequately regulated. Many of these facilities are located in highly populated areas and have been found to have contaminated air and water surrounding their facilities. The author states that six fires have broken out at metal shredding and recycling facilities in the Bay Area since 2007, five of them at facilities owned by Sims Metal Management LTD. Three occurred at the company's facility in Redwood City, causing plumes of smoke to billow over the city impacting the health of the residents of Redwood City. The Counties of San Mateo, Alameda and Santa Clara had to issue health advisories because of the smoke and school districts were forced to keep students inside because of the poor air quality. The author asserts that after the last two fires in November and December of 2013, Redwood City leaders called on regulators to do more to help protect residents from future incidents. The author further states that in 2011, US EPA inspectors discovered PCBs, mercury, lead, copper and zinc in Redwood Creek and San Francisco Bay around the Redwood City Sims plant. US EPA found levels of toxic polychlorinated biphenyl (PCBs) in Redwood Creek were 10,000 times what would be expected normally in soil, while lead and copper were 10 to 15 times greater than acceptable levels. The recycling company was also cited by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District after a 2007 fire. In 2011, the US Fish and Wildlife Service investigated Sims for allowing fibrous automobile shredder residue to blow or drift into wetlands around Bair Island, 800 feet downwind of the facility. SB 1249 Page 4 The author asserts that there have been numerous other incidents at facilities across California, which have created similar public health and environmental harm. The author believes that these incidents provide clear evidence that this industry is not currently adequately regulated. However, 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. SB 1249 rescinds all previously issued nonhazardous waste classifications for treated shredder waste for facilities that deal with vehicle shredder waste and requires DTSC to analyze, classify and develop regulations to ensure that storage, treatment, transport and disposal are done in a manner that protects public health and the environment, as appropriate. The author believes that this legislation will provide for better DTSC oversight of the industry to prevent contamination, explosions or other risks to California communities. 2)Auto/Metal Shredding and Recycling . The shredding of automobiles and major household appliances is a process where a hammer mill grinds the materials fed into it to fist-size pieces. The shredding of automobiles results in a mixture of ferrous metal, non-ferrous metal (e.g. alloys of copper and aluminum) and shredder waste, referred to as automobile shredder waste (ASW). This waste is composed of the plastics, rubber, foam, residual metal pieces, paper, fabric, glass, wire, hoses, rubber gaskets, sand, dirt and other non-metallic waste that remains from recycled automobiles, trucks, buses, and household appliances. ASW contains heavy metals (lead, copper, zinc and cadmium), chlorine and PCBs, as well as other hazardous chemicals. After shredding, some ASW is treated using metals fixation treatment technologies, coating the waste in cement to "fix" the SB 1249 Page 5 hazardous constituents in the waste. It is referred to as "fluff" and distributed to landfills across the state to be used as alternative daily cover. Roughly 700,000 tons of this waste -- also called fluff -- is disposed of in the state's landfills each year. According to the California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) records, 6,056,026 tons of ASW has been disposed in California landfills between 1998 and 2007. 3)ASW as Hazardous Waste . Prior to 1984, all ASW was considered not to be hazardous waste and was disposed of or used as alternative daily cover in municipal solid waste landfills. In 1984, California deemed ASW 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 PCBs at concentrations which on some occasions exceeded either/both the federal and California regulatory thresholds. Between 1986 and 1992, California's Department of Health Services (DHS) Toxic Substances Control Division (predecessor to DTSC) issued conditional nonhazardous waste classifications (also referred to as "f letters") to seven shredder facilities in California who treated their ASW to fix the hazardous components into the waste. Once facility operators received a nonhazardous waste classification, treated ASW was no longer regulated as a hazardous waste. In 1988, California's regulation of ASW was formalized in Department of Health Services Policy and Procedure 88-6. In early 2001, DTSC began an initiative to evaluate the adequacy of the ASW policy, which included new sampling and analysis. The report from that initiative recommended rescinding the conditional nonhazardous waste classifications. However, DTSC took no further action. 4)Environmental and Public Health Incidents caused by Shredder SB 1249 Page 6 Facilities . In 2002, DTSC issued an "imminent and substantial endangerment" order against Pacific Steel, because dust blowing from contaminated piles of waste stored out in the open, which contained PCBs 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 to clean up the site. In 2011, DTSC settled an enforcement action against the Sims Metal West and S.A. Recycling facility in Anaheim for $2.9 million. The action alleged that S.A. Recycling violated air pollution laws when an explosion at its San Pedro facility at Terminal Island destroyed its air pollution control system in May 2007 and the company continued operating for weeks without proper equipment. As a result, approximately 4.4 tons of toxic particulates were released to the air, and migrated to bay waters and the community of Wilmington, putting local residents and the environment at risk. At a 13-acre bay front site in Redwood City, Sims Metal Management shreds about 300,000 automobiles a year, along with appliances and other metal products, and loads the materials via huge conveyor belts onto ships bound for China, Korea and other countries, where they are made into new products. In January 2012, Sims Metal Management in Redwood City was cited by US EPA for polluting the San Francisco Bay. Inspectors found the company had unlawfully discharged PCBs, lead, copper, mercury and zinc into Redwood Creek, a tributary of San Francisco Bay. US EPA found PCB levels of 195 times accepted levels and more than 10 times accepted levels of lead in sediment near where the shredding yard meets the Redwood Creek. This enforcement action was resolved in 2013. Additionally, there have been several fires in the last several years at the Sims 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 2013, no one was reported injured by the SB 1249 Page 7 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 bay in Oakland and Berkeley. The company'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. 5)ASW Regulatory Review . In 2002, DTSC conducted an auto shredder initiative that found 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 the waste stream be regulated as hazardous waste. No action was taken at that time. In 2008, DTSC sent letters to shredders expressing the department's intention to rescind Policy and Procedure 88-6 and repeal the conditional authorization that allows ASW to be classified as non-hazardous waste. However, DTSC has not to date rescinded the conditional waste classifications. In a 2009, the California Integrated Waste Management Board (now CalRecycle) issued the "Alternative Daily Cover White Paper." The paper states that: "Staff with DTSC have indicated that ASW treatment is not effective, the material should be considered hazardous, and ASW should be required to be disposed in Class I landfills. DTSC staff also indicates that ASW 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 ASW. Automobile Recycling Fluff in Ohio is considered unsuitable for [alternative daily cover] due to concerns regarding fire hazards, wind-driven scattering, dispersal outside the working face by landfill equipment, and the potential for contamination by asbestos, PCBs, and mercury (from switches)." SB 1249 Page 8 DTSC is currently reviewing technical data about current and potential chemical treatments of metal shredder residue in order to reevaluate its prior waste classification decisions. In addition, DTSC is inviting input from the public. DTSC will develop a course of action based on the findings of this process. SB 1249 rescinds all previously issued nonhazardous waste classifications for treated shredder waste for facilities that deal with vehicle shredder waste and requires DTSC to analyze, classify and develop regulations to ensure that storage, treatment, transport and disposal are done in a manner that protects public health and the environment, as appropriate. The author believes that this legislation will provide for better DTSC oversight of the industry to prevent contamination, explosions or other risks to California communities. 6)Opposition . The West Coast Chapter of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries (ISRI) strongly oppose to SB 1249, as currently drafted, stating that "the bill in its current form would threaten the economic viability of large, well-established metal shredding facilities in California. These facilities have provided safe and environmentally responsible recycling services to the citizens of the State of California for over four decades and are responsible for thousands of good jobs across the state. Without the ability to safely and effectively recycle the huge quantities of scrap metal that are produced by our society on a daily basis, our landfills, roadsides, back yards, alley ways and open space would be littered with discarded automobiles, household appliances and the endless variety of other discarded metal products that are recycled by metal shredding facilities. The legislature must consider the impact of proposed legislation on this vital industry." SOURCE : Author SUPPORT : None on file OPPOSITION : Republic Services Waste Management West Coast Chapter of the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries SB 1249 Page 9