BILL ANALYSIS
SB 524
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Date of Hearing: June 30, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL SAFETY AND TOXIC MATERIALS
Wesley Chesbro, Chair
SB 524 (Correa) - As Amended: May 28, 2009
SENATE VOTE : 39-0
SUBJECT : Solid waste: auto shredder residue.
SUMMARY : Prohibits the Department of Toxic Substances Control
(DTSC) from altering the current regulatory status of auto
shredder residue without first considering factors considered by
an auto shredder residue working group, which is only required
to meet subject to the availability of specified private
funding. Specifically, this bill :
1) Requires the Secretary for Environmental Protection
(Secretary), on or before February 1, 2010, subject to the
availability of specified funding, to establish an auto
shredder residue working group, comprised of
representatives of the Integrated Waste Management Board
(IWMB), DTSC, the State Air Resources Board (ARB), the
State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), members of the
auto shredder industry, landfill operators, and other
interested stakeholders.
2) Requires the auto shredder residue working group to do
all of the following:
a) Review and evaluate the existing practice of using
treated auto shredder residue as alternative daily cover
(ADC) in landfills.
b) Determine the effects of DTSC's proposed revocation of
the current regulatory classification of treated auto
shredder residue and resulting prohibitions on its use as
ADC, including the potential effects of those prohibitions
or curtailments on recycling.
c) Determine whether the current regulatory classification
of treated auto shredder residue poses a threat to human
health or the environment.
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d) Identify the constituents in auto shredder residue that
could pose health and safety or environmental problems when
used as ADC in accordance with applicable regulations.
e) Recommend approaches to work with the auto industry to
manufacture vehicles that produce less hazardous waste at
end-of-life.
f) Recommend changes to statute, regulation, or agency
practice, if any, based on the results of the working
group's analysis.
3) Requires the Secretary, on or before December 1, 2010,
to report to the Legislature on the findings and
recommendations of the auto shredder residue working group.
4) Prohibits DTSC from altering the current regulatory
status of auto shredder residue without first considering
the factors reviewed and evaluated by the auto shredder
residue working group.
5) Exempts the Secretary from establishing an auto shredder
residue working group or submitting a report to the
Legislature unless the IWMB has entered into a written
agreement with one or more nongovernmental members of the
working group to reimburse the office of the Secretary, the
IWMB, DTSC, the ARB, and the SWRCB for their costs in
complying with the requirements of the bill.
6) Makes legislative findings.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Pursuant to the Health and Safety Code, defines "hazardous
waste" as a waste that meets any of the criteria for the
identification of a hazardous waste adopted by DTSC.
2)Pursuant to the California Integrated Waste Management Act of
1989 (Act), requires the IWMB to evaluate the use of recycling
residue for use as solid waste landfill cover material or for
use as extenders for currently used cover materials.
3)Pursuant to the Act, excludes from the definition of "solid
waste" hazardous waste and thus prohibits its disposal in a
solid waste landfill.
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4)Pursuant to Title 27, Division 2, Subdivision 1, Chapter 3,
Subchapter 4, Article 2, Section 20690 of the California Code
of Regulations, authorizes the use of auto shredder residue as
ADC for solid waste landfills if treated as specified and if
limited to a minimum compacted thickness of six inches and
average compacted thickness of less than 24 inches.
5)Pursuant to the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act
(RCRA), authorizes the United States Environmental Protection
Agency (US EPA) to control hazardous waste from "cradle to
grave," including during generation, transportation,
treatment, storage, and disposal.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS :
Purpose . According to the author's office, "For the past two
decades, DTSC and its predecessor agency the Department of
Health Services, have allowed treated auto shredder residue to
be managed as a nonhazardous waste in California under certain
prescribed conditions. On September 29, 2008, DTSC sent a
letter to the shredders notifying them that they were repealing
the shredders' non-hazardous status and would require all
shredders in California to register as hazardous waste
generators. The determination was made without adequate
justification or evidence supporting this dramatic change in
DTSC's 20 plus year policy and without consultation with other
affected agencies. Since a change in the regulatory status of
auto shredder residue will affect the California Integrated
Waste Management Board, the State Water Resources Control Board,
and the Air Resources Board, it is imperative that a joint
review be conducted prior to any revocation of the auto
shredders' declassification letters."
What is shredder waste ?" According to DTSC's "Draft Report:
California's Automobile Waste Initiative, November 2002," the
shredding of automobiles and major household appliances produces
a waste consisting primarily of non-metallic materials that
remain after the recyclable metals have been removed, such as
glass, fiber, rubber, automobile fluids, dirt and plastics. The
waste produced at metal shredding facilities large enough to
shred an automobile is referred to as "automobile shredder
waste," "automobile shredder residue," "shredder waste" (these
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facilities shred a variety of recyclable metals) or simply as
"fluff." In California, shredder waste has been found to
contain lead, cadmium, copper, zinc and polychlorinated
biphenyls (PCBs) at levels above the state's regulatory
thresholds. According to DTSC's draft report, shredder waste is
both a hazardous waste and a recyclable material subject to
California's Hazardous Waste Control Law and the regulations
that apply to hazardous wastes.
According to the auto shredder industry, they generate
approximately 700,000-750,000 tons of auto shredder residue per
year in California. They indicate that based on IWMB records,
approximately 622,055 tons of auto shredder waste was used as
ADC in 2008, but they believe that actual usage of shredder
residue as ADC is higher.
Shredder waste as alternative daily cover . According to The Los
Angeles Times, "Recyclers say they treat the fluff by coating it
with cement during a chemical reaction that "fixes" the heavy
metals and prevents seeping or leaching. After treatment, the
fluff is hauled to landfills, where it is spread 6 inches deep
over each day's dumpings to tamp down odors and keep birds, rats
and other animals from getting at the garbage. Treated fluff is
an economical alternative to using sometimes scarce dirt to
cover landfills, recyclers argue."
State management of shredder waste . Prior to 1984, shredder
waste was not considered hazardous and was either disposed or
used as daily cover in municipal solid waste landfills.
However, on March 9, 1984, California's Department of Health
Services (DHS) -Toxic Substances Control Division (the
predecessor to DTSC)- determined that shredder waste was a
non-Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (non-RCRA) hazardous
waste in California due to the presence of lead, cadmium,
copper, and zinc at levels above the state's regulatory
thresholds for those metals. Shredder waste has also been found
to contain PCBs at concentrations that exceed the federal and
state regulatory threshold.
Between 1986 and 1992, DHS issued conditional nonhazardous waste
classifications to seven shredder facilities in California that
had successfully treated their shredder waste to nonhazardous
levels using similar metals fixation treatment technologies.
However, none of the treatment technologies were capable of
treating organic constituents such as PCBs, or reducing total
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concentrations of the inorganic constituents present in shredder
waste. Once the facility operator received a nonhazardous waste
classification from DHS, the treated shredder waste was no
longer regulated as a hazardous waste. California's regulation
of shredder waste and shredder facilities was formalized in 1988
in the DHS Policy and Procedure 88-6.
Recent action on shredder waste . In early 2000, DTSC initiated
a comprehensive review of its past policies to ensure that the
policies conformed to current laws and regulations and were
still valid considering advances in scientific understanding; to
affirm the regulatory status of automobile shredders, and to
ensure compliance with existing statutes and regulations. One
of the policies that came under review was Policy and Procedure
88-6.
As part of reviewing the policy, DTSC selected three facilities
for sampling of both untreated and treated shredder waste.
According to its draft report, DTSC found that all samples of
untreated shredder waste exceeded the state regulatory
thresholds for total lead, copper, and zinc and soluble lead,
cadmium and zinc. Additionally, treated shredder waste from
each facility exceeded the state regulatory thresholds for total
lead and zinc and some samples exceeded the state's soluble
regulatory threshold for PCBs, zinc and cadmium, thereby
disqualifying the treated wastes from classification as
nonhazardous. DTSC contends that treated shredder waste that
fails to meet the conditions of its nonhazardous waste
classification is subject to all applicable hazardous waste
management requirements including the payment of hazardous waste
generation fees. As a result of the findings of their
investigation and other research, DTSC recommended:
1)Rescinding Policy and Procedure 88-6;
2)Requiring facilities that wish to continue treating their
shredder waste on-site to obtain the appropriate authorization
within a specified period of time; and
3)Rescinding all previously issued nonhazardous waste
classifications for treated shredder waste.
Status of shredder waste classification . DTSC indicates that it
has been meeting with both the auto shredder industry and
disposal facilities. At the meetings, DTSC affirmed that it was
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not seeking to shut down the industry, but to ensure that it is
operating safely and preventing public health and environmental
impacts from contaminants that are released during their
operations and disposal of shredder waste. Additionally, DTSC
prepared and shared a list of proposed management standards that
it believes would provide adequate safeguards to prevent harm.
DTSC hopes to negotiate a schedule with industry that allows it
the time necessary to make needed changes to accomplish those
goals. According to a recent email from DTSC to the shredder
industry, it seems DTSC has extended the deadline for rescinding
the prior authorization letters to September, 2009, to provide
time to negotiate agreements with each company that include
enforceable schedules.
Bill potentially prohibits DTSC from taking action in
perpetuity. This bill prohibits DTSC from altering the current
regulatory status of auto shredder residue, a potential
hazardous waste, without first considering the factors reviewed
and evaluated by the auto shredder residue working group.
However, the working group is not required to meet unless the
California Environmental Protection Agency can secure private
funding from stakeholders to cover the cost of convening the
working group. Therefore, this bill sets up an incentive for
stakeholders (i.e. regulated industry) not to fund the working
group in order to maintain the current regulatory status of auto
shredder residue. This bill, as drafted, almost assuredly would
permanently prohibit DTSC from being able to classify shredder
residue as hazardous waste and therefore manage it
appropriately.
Arguments in support . According to California Chapters of the
Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries, "SB 524 is necessary
for three important reasons: (1) to ensure the continual
beneficial reuse of treated automobile shredder reside as an
alternative daily cover in municipal landfills; (2) to ensure
that the interest of all affected regulatory agencies and
stakeholders are identified and evaluated before regulatory
status of this material is changed; and (3) to require that any
proposed changes to the status quo be based on a determination
that the current regulatory approach poses an unacceptable
threat to human health and the environment." Republic, Inc.
adds, "We are not aware of any DTSC studies or tests performed
at Class II or Class III landfills to determine if the receipt
of treated automobile shredder residue at any of these landfills
has caused any injury to the environment or to workers. From
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our perspective, the data that DTSC is currently relying on is
inadequate to support a sweeping revision of the classification
of treated automobile shredder residue from all facilities in
California."
Arguments in opposition . Sierra Club California opposes SB 524
because, "It would grant a regulatory loophole to the auto
shredder industry, interfere in the hazardous waste
classification process, and impose unnecessary bureaucratic red
tape on the California Environmental Protection Agency? SB 524
would complicate DTSC's regulatory process by establishing an
unnecessary working group at Cal-EPA with required
representation from industry and from the Air, Water and Waste
Boards. While we support multi-media coordination among the
various regulators, that coordination is already taking place,
according to Cal-EPA, so this industry-sponsored bill would add
no value. What it would do is convey a message that the
Legislature will, at the behest of polluters, interfere in
DTSC's science-driven waste classification process."
Proposed committee amendments.
1)Add members of the public health and environmental communities
as required participants in the auto shredder residue working
group, as created by 42173. (a).
2)Delete section 42173 (d) that would prohibit DTSC action on
auto shredder residue. Instead require DTSC, when reviewing
policies and procedures for management of automobile shredder
waste, to determine whether the current regulatory
classification of treated auto shredder residue and subsequent
uses pose a threat to human health or the environment and to
seek input from the State Air Resources Board, the State Water
Resources Control Board, and stakeholders, including but not
limited to, members of the auto shredder industry, landfill
operators, and members of the public health and environmental
communities.
3)Sunset the provisions of this bill on July 1, 2011.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
California Chapters of the Institute of Scrap Recycling
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Industries (sponsor)
League of California Cities
Republic Services, Inc.
Opposition
Sierra Club California
Analysis Prepared by : Shannon McKinney / E.S. & T.M. / (916)
319-3965