MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1998 Regular Session

To: Conservation and Water Resources

By: Representative Ford

House Bill 655

(As Passed the House)

AN ACT TO REENACT SECTIONS 69-23-301 THROUGH 69-23-311, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH PROVIDE FOR THE MISSISSIPPI WASTE PESTICIDE DISPOSAL ACT OF 1993; TO AMEND REENACTED SECTION 69-23-311, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REMOVE A REFERENCE TO THE ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION COUNCIL, WHICH NO LONGER EXISTS; TO REPEAL SECTION 69-23-313, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, WHICH SETS A REPEALER DATE ON THE MISSISSIPPI WASTE PESTICIDE DISPOSAL ACT; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES. 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

SECTION 1. Section 69-23-301, Mississippi Code of 1972, is reenacted as follows:

69-23-301. The title of Sections 69-23-301 through 69-23-313 shall be the "Mississippi Waste Pesticide Disposal Act of 1993."

SECTION 2. Section 69-23-303, Mississippi Code of 1972, is reenacted as follows:

69-23-303. For the purposes of this section, the following words shall have the meaning ascribed herein unless the context clearly requires otherwise:

(a) "Approved program" means a waste pesticide disposal program approved by the Department of Agriculture and Commerce pursuant to the provisions to Sections 69-23-301 through 69-23-313 and other state and federal enactments.

(b) "Commission" means the Commission on Environmental Quality.

(c) "Department" means the Mississippi Department of Agriculture and Commerce.

(d) "Person" means any individual, trust, firm, joint-stock company, public or private corporation (including a government corporation), partnership, association, state, or any agency or institution thereof, municipality, commission, political subdivision of a state or any interstate body, and includes any officer or governing or managing body of any municipality, or political subdivision, or any officer or employee thereof. This definition shall not include the United States Government or any agency, department or other division thereof.

(e) "Pesticides" means pesticides as defined in Section 69-23-3, Mississippi Code of 1972.

(f) "Waste pesticide" means any pesticide formulation which cannot be used according to label directions in Mississippi because of cancellation or suspension of its federal or state registration, or deterioration of the product or its label, and any pesticide formulation whose active ingredients are not clearly identifiable because of label deterioration or because the pesticide is not stored in its original container.

SECTION 3. Section 69-23-305, Mississippi Code of 1972, is reenacted as follows:

69-23-305. (1) The department shall, subject to the availability of funds appropriated by the Legislature or otherwise available, develop and administer a Waste Pesticide Disposal Program.

(2) The department shall have the authority, after due public hearing, to promulgate appropriate rules and regulations for carrying out the provisions of Sections 69-23-301 through 69-23-313, including rules and regulations for the administration of funds as may be appropriated or otherwise made available. No action taken by the department under the provisions of this section shall be effective unless and until such action is approved by the Advisory Board to the Bureau of Plant Industry created under the provisions of Section 69-25-3, Mississippi Code of 1972.

(3) The Waste Pesticide Disposal Program created under Sections 69-23-301 through 69-23-313 shall not apply to disposal of pesticides which may be returned to the seller or manufacturer of such pesticides at no disposal cost to the person returning such pesticides.

SECTION 4. Section 69-23-307, Mississippi Code of 1972, is reenacted as follows:

69-23-307. Nothing in Sections 69-23-301 through 69-23-313 shall be construed as affecting the commission's authority under state and federal law, including but not limited to its authority to regulate the transportation, storage and disposal of any hazardous waste.

SECTION 5. Section 69-23-309, Mississippi Code of 1972, is reenacted as follows:

69-23-309. The department shall establish an advisory committee for the purpose of advising the department on the development and administration of a statewide waste pesticide disposal program. The advisory committee shall be comprised of one (1) representative from: the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation; the Mississippi Soil and Water Conservation Commission; the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality; the Mississippi Cooperative Extension Service; the Delta Council; a statewide environmental group to be appointed by the Mississippi Commissioner of Agriculture and Commerce; the Mississippi Agricultural Chemical Council; and any three (3) additional lay persons not affiliated with any of the previously mentioned organizations which the department believes would be beneficial to the program.

SECTION 6. Section 69-23-311, Mississippi Code of 1972, is reenacted and amended as follows:

69-23-311. Before November 15, 1994, and November 15 of each year thereafter, the Department of Agriculture and Commerce shall report to * * * the appropriate environmental and agricultural committees of the Senate and House of Representatives on the status and any results of the waste pesticide disposal program. Such report shall include at a minimum any recommendations for improvement or expansion of the waste pesticide disposal program.

SECTION 7. Section 69-23-313, Mississippi Code of 1972, which sets a repealer date of July 1, 1998, on the Mississippi Waste Pesticide Disposal Act of 1993, is repealed.

SECTION 8. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 1998.