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. The Department of Toxic Substances Control 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. A violation of the hazardous waste control laws is a crime. This bill would authorize, until January 1, 2018, 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 metal shredding facilities 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. The bill would require the disposal of treated metal shredder waste to be regulated pursuant to the hazardous waste control laws, unless the department adopts those alternative management standards, and would authorize treated metal shredder waste to be used at a specified type of disposal unit as alternative daily cover or for beneficial reuse or placed in that specified type of disposal unit, if the alternative management standards result in the treated metal shredder waste being classified as nonhazardous waste. The bill would require the department to complete the analysis of the hazardous waste management activities and the subsequent regulatory action before January 1, 2018, and would make all hazardous waste classifications and policies, procedures, or guidance issued by the department before January 1, 2014, relating to metal shredder waste or treated metal shredder waste inoperative on January 1, 2018, if the department has completed that analysis and either rescinds the conditional nonhazardous waste classification of that waste or adopts alternative management standards pursuant to this bill. 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 and would require the department to establish and adopt regulations necessary to administer the fee and to establish a fee schedule at a rate sufficient to cover the costs of the department to implement these provisions. The bill would establish a separate subaccount in the Hazardous Waste Control Account, and would require that the fees be deposited into the subaccount, to be available upon appropriation by the Legislature. The bill would exempt a metal shredder facility which pays this annual fee from certain hazardous waste control law fees as those fees pertain to metal shredding activities and the generation, handling, management, transportation, and disposal of metal shredder waste. (2) Existing law provides that, in general, regulations shall be adopted pursuant to the Administrative Procedure Act. Existing law requires emergency regulations be approved by the Office of Administrative Law and prohibits an emergency regulation from being in effect more than 180 days unless certain procedures are followed. The bill would authorize a regulation adopted pursuant to the above-described fee provisions to be adopted as an emergency regulation, as specified. The bill would require that such an emergency regulation be filed with, but not be repealed by, the Office of Administrative Law, and would require that the regulation remain in effect for 2 years or until revised by the department, whichever occurs sooner. (3) Existing law, on or before February 15, 1988, required specified regional water quality control boards to prepare a list of specified types of landfills that are authorized to accept and dispose of shredder waste. This bill would repeal this provision. (4) 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.