MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

1998 Regular Session

To: Environment Prot, Cons and Water Res

By: Senator(s) Moffatt, Robertson

AN ACT TO AMEND SECTION 17-17-3, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO DELETE AN EXEMPTION FROM CAPACITY ASSURANCE REQUIREMENTS FOR A SPECIFIC AQUEOUS HAZARDOUS WASTE FACILITY; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES. 

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

SECTION 1. Section 17-17-3, Mississippi Code of 1972, is amended as follows:

17-17-3. For purposes of this chapter, the following words shall have the definitions ascribed herein unless the context requires otherwise:

(a) "Agency" means any controlling agency, public or private, elected, appointed or volunteer, controlling and supervising the collection and/or disposal of solid wastes.

(b) "Ashes" means the solid residue from burning of wood, coal, coke or other combustible materials used for heating, or from incineration of solid wastes, but excepting solid residue the storage or disposition of which is controlled by other agencies.

(c) "Commercial hazardous waste management facility" means any facility engaged in the storage, treatment, recovery or disposal of hazardous waste for a fee and which accepts hazardous waste from more than one (1) generator. * * *

(d) "Commercial nonhazardous solid waste management facility" means any facility engaged in the storage, treatment, processing or disposal of nonhazardous solid waste for compensation or which accepts nonhazardous solid waste from more than one (1) generator not owned by the facility owner.

(e) "Commercial oil field exploration and production waste disposal" means storage, treatment, recovery, processing, disposal or acceptance of oil field exploration and production waste from more than one (1) generator or for a fee.

(f) "Commercial purpose" means for the purpose of economic gain.

(g) "Commission" means the Mississippi Commission on Environmental Quality.

(h) "Composting or compost plant" means an officially controlled method or operation whereby putrescible solid wastes are broken down through microbic action to a material offering no hazard or nuisance factors to public health or well-being.

(i) "Department" means the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.

(j) "Disposal" means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking or placing of any solid waste or hazardous waste into or on any land or water so that such solid waste or hazardous waste or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters, including groundwaters.

(k) "Executive director" means the Executive Director of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.

(l) "Garbage" means putrescible animal and vegetable wastes resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking and consumption of food, including wastes from markets, storage facilities, handling and sale of produce and other food products, and excepting such materials that may be serviced by garbage grinders and handled as household sewage.

(m) "Hazardous wastes" means any waste or combination of waste of a solid, liquid, contained gaseous, or semisolid form which because of its quantity, concentration or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics, may (i) cause, or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness; or (ii) pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, disposed of, or otherwise managed which are listed by the Environmental Protection Agency as hazardous wastes which exceed the threshold limits set forth in the Environmental Protection Agency regulations for classifying hazardous waste. Such wastes include, but are not limited to, those wastes which are toxic, corrosive, flammable, irritants, strong sensitizers, or which generate pressure through decomposition, heat or other means. Such wastes do not include those radioactive materials regulated pursuant to the Mississippi Radiation Protection Law of 1976, appearing in Section 45-14-1 et seq.

(n) "Hazardous waste management" means the systematic control of the collection, source separation, storage, transportation, processing, treatment, recovery and disposal of hazardous waste.

(o) "Head" means the head of the Office of Pollution Control of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality or his designee.

(p) "Health department" means the Mississippi State Health Department and every county or district health department. "Health officer" means the state or affected county health officer or his designee.

(q) "Manifest" means the form used for identifying the quantity, composition, origin, routing and destination of hazardous waste during its transport.

(r) "Office" means the Office of Pollution Control of the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.

(s) "Open dump" means any officially recognized place, land or building which serves as a final depository for solid wastes, whether or not burned or buried, which does not meet the minimum requirements for a sanitary landfill, except approved incinerators, compost plants and salvage yards.

(t) "Permit board" means the permit board created by Section 49-17-28.

(u) "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, political subdivision, or the United States or any officer or employee thereof.

(v) "Pollution Emergency Fund" means the fund created under Section 49-17-68.

(w) "Rubbish" means nonputrescible solid wastes (excluding ashes) consisting of both combustible and noncombustible wastes. Combustible rubbish includes paper, rags, cartons, wood, furniture, rubber, plastics, yard trimmings, leaves and similar materials. Noncombustible rubbish includes glass, crockery, metal cans, metal furniture and like materials which will not burn at ordinary incinerator temperatures (not less than 1600 degrees F.).

(x) "Sanitary landfill" means a controlled area of land upon which solid waste is deposited, and is compacted and covered with no on-site burning of wastes, and so located, contoured, drained and operated so that it will not cause an adverse effect on public health or the environment.

(y) "Solid wastes" means any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant or air pollution control facility and other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations, and from community activities, but does not include solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage, or solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or industrial discharges which are point sources subject to permits under Section 402 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended (86 Stat. 880), or source, special nuclear or by-product material as defined by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954.

(z) "Storage" means the containment of wastes, either on a temporary basis or for a period of years, except as provided in 40 C.F.R. 263.12, in such a manner as not to constitute disposal of such wastes.

(aa) "Transport" means the movement of wastes from the point of generation to any intermediate points, and finally to the point of ultimate storage or disposal.

(bb) "Treatment" means any method, technique or process, including neutralization, designed to change the physical, chemical or biological character or composition of any solid waste in order to neutralize such character or composition of any solid waste, neutralize such waste or render such waste, safer for transport, amenable for recovery, amenable for storage or reduced in volume.

(cc) "Treatment facility" means a location at which waste is subjected to treatment and may include a facility where waste has been generated.

(dd) "Unauthorized dump" means any collection of solid wastes either dumped or caused to be dumped or placed on any property either public or private, whether or not regularly used. An abandoned automobile, large appliance, or similar large item of solid waste shall be considered as forming an unauthorized dump within the meaning of this chapter, but not the careless, scattered littering of smaller individual items as tires, bottles, cans and the like. An unauthorized dump shall also mean any solid waste disposal site which does not meet the regulatory provisions of this chapter.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage.