Amended in Assembly June 24, 2014

Amended in Assembly June 10, 2014

Amended in Senate May 27, 2014

Amended in Senate April 22, 2014

Senate Bill No. 1249

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. begin insert 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. end insert 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 begin delete taken regulatory action end delete begin insert completed that analysis and either rescinds the conditional nonhazardous waste classification of that waste or adopts alternative management standards pursuant to this bill end insert . 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, begin delete California deemed metal shredder waste end delete begin insert due to the
adoption of new state hazardous waste regulations, metal shredder
waste was classified end insert 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
begin insert pursuant to subdivision (f) of Section 66260.200 of Title 22 of the
California Code of Regulations end insert , also referred to as “f letters,” to
seven shredder facilities in California that treated their metal
shredder waste to begin delete affix the hazardous components into waste. end delete
begin insert stabilize the metals in the waste and reduce their solubility. end insert Once
a facility operator received a nonhazardous waste classification,
treated metal shredder waste was no longer regulated as a
hazardous begin delete waste at the facility. end delete begin insert waste. end insert

(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 begin insert draft end insert report from that initiative
recommended rescinding the conditional nonhazardous waste
classifications. begin delete However, DTSC took no further action. end delete

begin delete

(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)

end delete

begin insert (e) end insert  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 begin delete has not, to
date, rescinded end delete begin insert did not rescind end insert the conditional waste classifications.

begin delete

(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)

end delete

begin insert (f) end insert  It is the intent of the Legislature that the conditional
nonhazardous waste begin delete classifications end delete begin insert classifications, as documented
through the historical “f letters, end insert begin insert ” end insert be revoked and that metal
shredding facilities be thoroughly begin insert evaluated and end insert 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, begin delete waste end delete 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, begin delete waste end delete appliances,
and other forms of begin insert scrap end insert metal begin delete objects containing material to be
discarded. end delete begin insert objects. end insert “Metal shredding facility” does not include a
feeder yard, a metal crusher, or a metal baler begin insert , if that facility does
not otherwise conduct metal shredding operations end insert .

(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, begin delete for each requirement that the alternative management
standards are intended to replace, end delete 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.

begin delete

(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.

end delete begin insert

(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.

end insert begin insert

(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:

end insert begin insert

(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.

end insert begin insert

(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.

end insert begin insert

(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:

end insert begin insert

(A) Rescinds the conditional nonhazardous waste classifications
issued pursuant to Section 25143 with regard to treated metal
shredder waste.

end insert begin insert

(B) Completes the adoption of alternative management
standards pursuant to this section.

end insert

(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 begin delete has taken the required regulatory action. end delete begin insert completes its
analysis pursuant to subdivision (c) and takes one of the following
actions: end insert

begin insert

(1) Rescinds the conditional nonhazardous waste classifications
issued pursuant to Section 25143 with regard to that waste.

end insert begin insert

(2) Adopts alternative management standards pursuant to this
section.

end insert

(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:

begin delete

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.

end delete

begin insert

begin insert 25150.9.2. end insert   

end insert

begin insert 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: end insert

begin insert

(a) The waste is accepted by a solid waste landfill for disposal
or for use as alternative daily cover or other beneficial uses.

end insert begin insert

(b) The management of that waste complies with the alternative
management standards adopted by the department pursuant to
Section 25150.9.

end insert

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.