| EHS Regulatory News | June/July 2003
1. Senate Bill 14 Reporting of Source Reduction Opportunities Due 1 September 2003
2. New General Permit Raises Storm Water Compliance Concerns
3. California Landfills Test Positive for Radiation
4. Feds Reaffirm Oversight over Wetlands
Senate Bill 14 Reporting of Source Reduction Opportunities Due 1 September 2003
The Hazardous Waste Source Reduction and Management Review Act of 1989, more commonly referred to as Senate Bill 14 (SB 14), requires certain hazardous waste generators to identify source reduction opportunities at their facilities as an alternative means of managing hazardous waste. Source reduction helps to reduce the generation of hazardous waste as well as the associated liabilities and potential adverse impacts to public health and the environment.
The SB 14 requirements apply to generators that routinely generate greater than 12,000 kilograms of hazardous waste or 12 kilograms of extremely hazardous waste annually. Generators subject to SB 14 must conduct a source reduction evaluation at their facility and prepare the following three documents:
- Source Reduction Evaluation Review;
- Hazardous Waste Management Performance Report; and
- Summary Progress Report.
These documents must be completed and submitted to the California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) no later than 1 September 2003.
For more information on the SB 14 requirements, go to www.dtsc.ca.gov
New General Permit Raises Storm Water Compliance Concerns
An article recently published in Farella Braun + Martel’s Environmental Law Update discusses how previously unregulated governmental entities in California will soon be required to implement new programs to minimize water pollution resulting from runoff of rain and snowmelt. Agencies statewide that will be affected include small cities, towns, military bases, hospitals, ports, college and school campuses, and fairgrounds.
According to the article, California’s State Water Resources Control Board recently issued the General Permit for Storm Water Discharges from Small Municipal Separate Storm Sewer Systems. The permit was developed in response to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Clean Water Act (CWA), and is part of a national effort to reduce storm water pollution.
For more information, visit www.fbm.com.
California Landfills Test Positive for Radiation
An article published in the April/May 2003 edition of the California Environmental Business Council, Environmental Regulatory Update reports on high levels of radiation found in nearly half of the 50 state landfills tested by state officials. The levels reportedly called into question California’s former policy of accepting mildly radioactive waste at city repositories. Officials tested the landfills for six categories of radiation, including uranium, tritium, and gross-alpha and gross-beta radiation.
The article further reports that until last year, California’s Department of Health Services allowed mildly radioactive waste in landfills, a fact that was unknown to many state legislators, environmental groups and landfill operators. Governor Gray Davis has since issued a partial moratorium to bar any radioactive materials from the landfills.
The radioactivity detected could be from some of the now-banned waste, natural mineral deposits, or benign sources, according to state environmental health officials. An immediate call for more testing resulted in retesting of about 10 percent of the state landfills, including those in King’s County, Calabasas, the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valleys. According to the article, 16 of the 26 landfills with protective lining exceeded drinking-water safety standards.
Administration Reaffirms Commitment to No Net Loss of Wetlands and Addresses Approach for Protecting Isolated Waters, in Light of Supreme Court Ruling
The USEPA and the U.S. Army recently announced two actions that will help companies and individuals comply with the CWA’s requirements for protection of the nation's wetlands. These actions, which reaffirm federal authority over the vast majority of America's wetlands, are in response to the Supreme Court’s 2001 decision in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (SWANCC), which limited federal authority under the CWA to regulate certain isolated wetlands.
The two agencies jointly issued clarifying guidance for the federal government’s rules used to protect wetlands that are regulated under the CWA. The new guidance clarifies the following activities by the USACE:
- Field staff should continue to assert jurisdiction over traditional navigable waters (and adjacent wetlands) and, generally speaking, their tributary systems (and adjacent wetlands).
- In light of SWANCC, field staff should not assert CWA jurisdiction over isolated waters that are both intrastate and non-navigable, where the sole basis available for asserting CWA jurisdiction rests on any of the factors listed in the “Migratory Bird Rule.”
- In light of SWANCC, field staff should seek formal, project-specific Headquarters approval prior to asserting jurisdiction over isolated non-navigable intrastate waters based on other types of interstate commerce links listed in current regulatory definitions of “waters of the U.S.”
In SWANCC, the Supreme Court held that the Corps had exceeded its CWA regulatory authority in asserting jurisdiction over isolated, intrastate, non-navigable ponds based on the Migratory Bird Rule.
Although the SWANCC decision limits federal CWA jurisdiction over isolated, intrastate, non-navigable waters and wetlands, other federal or state laws and programs still cover these waters and wetlands. The Food Security Act’s “Swampbuster” requirements and the Wetlands Reserve Program under the U.S. Department of Agriculture are unaffected. In addition, other federal programs supporting wetlands protection and restoration continue, including the following: the Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners in Wildlife, the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Coastal Wetlands Restoration Program, the USEPA’s Five-Star Restoration program, the National Estuary Program, and the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission, which is composed of the Secretaries of Interior and Agriculture, the Administrator of USEPA, and Members of Congress.
For more information on the SWANCC decision or wetland permitting, you can contact an ERM wetland specialist, visit the USEPA’s website at http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands, or visit the U.S. Army Corps Regulatory Branch home page at http://www.usace.army.mil.
| EHS Regulatory News Archive
|