BILL ANALYSIS �
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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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
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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
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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)."
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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
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