Regular Session 2019-2020 House Bill 1808 P.N. 2466

PRINTER'S NO. 2466

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

HOUSE BILL

No.

1808

Session of

2019

INTRODUCED BY MACKENZIE, CALTAGIRONE, CIRESI, JAMES, KEEFER,

MILLARD, MIZGORSKI, MOUL, NEILSON, ROTHMAN, SAYLOR, THOMAS

AND ZIMMERMAN, SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

REFERRED TO COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENTAL RESOURCES AND ENERGY,

SEPTEMBER 16, 2019

AN ACT

Amending the act of July 7, 1980 (P.L.380, No.97), entitled "An

act providing for the planning and regulation of solid waste

storage, collection, transportation, processing, treatment,

and disposal; requiring municipalities to submit plans for

municipal waste management systems in their jurisdictions;

authorizing grants to municipalities; providing regulation of

the management of municipal, residual and hazardous waste;

requiring permits for operating hazardous waste and solid

waste storage, processing, treatment, and disposal

facilities; and licenses for transportation of hazardous

waste; imposing duties on persons and municipalities;

granting powers to municipalities; authorizing the

Environmental Quality Board and the Department of

Environmental Resources to adopt rules, regulations,

standards and procedures; granting powers to and imposing

duties upon county health departments; providing remedies;

prescribing penalties; and establishing a fund," in general

provisions, further providing for definitions; and making

editorial changes.

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

hereby enacts as follows:

Section 1. The title of the act of July 7, 1980 (P.L.380,

No.97), known as the Solid Waste Management Act, is amended to

read:

AN ACT

Providing for the planning and regulation of solid waste

storage, collection, transportation, processing, treatment,

and disposal; requiring municipalities to submit plans for

municipal waste management systems in their jurisdictions;

authorizing grants to municipalities; providing regulation of

the management of municipal, residual and hazardous waste;

requiring permits for operating hazardous waste and solid

waste storage, processing, treatment, and disposal

facilities; and licenses for transportation of hazardous

waste; imposing duties on persons and municipalities;

granting powers to municipalities; authorizing the

Environmental Quality Board and the Department of

Environmental [Resources] Protection to adopt rules,

regulations, standards and procedures; granting powers to and

imposing duties upon county health departments; providing

remedies; prescribing penalties; and establishing a fund.

Section 2. The definitions of "department," "municipal

waste," "processing," "residual waste," "secretary," "solid

waste" and "treatment" in section 103 of the act, amended

February 15, 2018 (P.L.19, No.7), are amended and the section is

amended by adding definitions to read:

Section 103. Definitions.

The following words and phrases when used in this act shall

have, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise, the

meanings given to them in this section:

* * *

"Department." The Department of Environmental [Resources]

Protection of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and its

authorized representatives.

* * *

"Gasification." A manufacturing process through which

20190HB1808PN2466 - 2 -

recoverable feedstocks or post-use polymers are heated and

converted into a fuel-gas mixture in an oxygen-deficient

atmosphere and the mixture is converted into valuable raw,

intermediate and final products, including, but not limited to,

plastic, monomers, chemicals, waxes, lubricants, chemical

feedstocks, crude oil, diesel, gasoline, diesel and gasoline

blendstocks, home heating oil and other fuels, including ethanol

and transportation fuel. Gasification shall not be considered

processing, incineration or treatment.

"Gasification facility." A manufacturing facility that

receives, separates, stores and converts post-use polymers and

recoverable feedstocks using gasification. A gasification

facility shall not be considered to be a municipal waste

disposal or processing facility, a processing facility, an

incinerator or a resource recovery facility.

* * *

"Municipal waste." Any garbage, refuse, industrial lunchroom

or office waste and other material including solid, liquid,

semisolid or contained gaseous material resulting from operation

of residential, municipal, commercial or institutional

establishments and from community activities and any sludge not

meeting the definition of residual or hazardous waste hereunder

from a municipal, commercial or institutional water supply

treatment plant, waste water treatment plant, or air pollution

control facility. The term does not include post-use polymers or

recoverable feedstocks where these materials are converted

through pyrolysis or gasification.

* * *

"Post-use polymers." Plastic polymers that derive from any

household, industrial, municipal, community, commercial or other

20190HB1808PN2466 - 3 -

source of operations or activities which might otherwise become

a waste if not converted into valuable raw, intermediate and

final products, including, but not limited to, plastic,

monomers, chemicals, waxes, lubricants, chemical feedstocks,

crude oil, diesel, gasoline, diesel and gasoline blendstocks,

home heating oil and other fuels, including ethanol and

transportation fuel. Post-use polymers may contain incidental

contaminants or impurities such as paper labels or metal rings.

Post-use polymers are not mixed with solid waste, municipal

waste, residual waste, medical waste, hazardous waste, e-waste,

tires or construction demolition debris. Post-use polymers shall

not be considered solid wastes, residual wastes or municipal

wastes.

"Processing."

(1) The term includes any of the following:

(i) Any method or technology used for the purpose of

reducing the volume or bulk of municipal or residual

waste or any method or technology used to convert part or

all of such waste materials for off-site reuse.

(ii) Transfer facilities, composting facilities, and

resource recovery facilities.

(2) The term does not include [a] any of the following:

(i) A collection or processing center that is only

for source-separated recyclable materials, including

clear glass, colored glass, aluminum, steel and

bimetallic cans, high-grade office paper, newsprint,

corrugated paper and plastics.

(ii) Pyrolysis or gasification processes that

utilize post-use polymers or recoverable feedstocks.

"Pyrolysis." A manufacturing process through which post-use

20190HB1808PN2466 - 4 -

polymers are heated in the absence of oxygen until melted and

thermally decomposed and then cooled, condensed and converted

into valuable raw, intermediate and final products, including,

but not limited to, plastic, monomers, chemicals, waxes,

lubricants, chemical feedstocks, crude oil, diesel, gasoline,

diesel and gasoline blendstocks, home heating oil and other

fuels, including ethanol and transportation fuel. Pyrolysis

shall not be considered processing, incineration or treatment.

"Pyrolysis facility." A manufacturing facility that

receives, separates, stores and converts post-use polymers using

pyrolysis. A pyrolysis facility shall not be considered to be a

municipal waste disposal or processing facility, a processing

facility, an incinerator or a resource recovery facility.

"Recoverable feedstocks." One or more of the following

materials, derived from recoverable waste, that has been

processed so that it may be used as feedstock in a gasification

facility:

(1) Post-use polymers.

(2) Materials, including, but not limited to, municipal

solid waste that contains post-use polymers, and other post-

industrial waste containing post-use polymers, that have been

processed into a fuel or feedstock for which the

Environmental Protection Agency has made a nonwaste

determination under 40 CFR 241.3(c) (relating to standards

and procedures for identification of non-hazardous secondary

materials that are solid wastes when used as fuels or

ingredients in combustion units) or otherwise determined are

not waste or for which the department has made a nonwaste

determination.

"Residual waste."

20190HB1808PN2466 - 5 -

(1) The term includes any of the following:

(i) Any garbage, refuse, other discarded material or

other waste including solid, liquid, semisolid, or

contained gaseous materials resulting from industrial,

mining and agricultural operations.

(ii) Any sludge from an industrial, mining or

agricultural water supply treatment facility, waste water

treatment facility or air pollution control facility,

provided that it is not hazardous.

(2) The term does not include:

(i) Coal refuse as defined in the "Coal Refuse

Disposal Control Act."

(ii) Treatment sludges from coal mine drainage

treatment plants, disposal of which is being carried on

pursuant to and in compliance with a valid permit issued

pursuant to "The Clean Streams Law."

(iii) Current generation blast furnace, iron and

steel slag if:

(A) used onsite as a waste processing liming

agent in acid neutralization or onsite in place of

aggregate or sold and distributed in the stream of

commerce for consumption, use or further processing

into another desired commodity; and

(B) managed as an item of commercial value in

accordance with industry practices to ensure

commercial value.

(iv) Post-use polymers or recoverable feedstocks

when these materials are converted through pyrolysis or

gasification.

"Secretary." The Secretary of the Department of

20190HB1808PN2466 - 6 -

Environmental [Resources] Protection of the Commonwealth of

Pennsylvania.

"Solid waste." Any waste, including but not limited to,

municipal, residual or hazardous wastes, including solid,

liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous materials. The term does

not include [coal] any of the following:

(1) Coal ash [or drill].

(2) Drill cuttings.

(3) Post-use polymers or recoverable feedstocks when

these materials are converted through pyrolysis or

gasification.

* * *

"Treatment." Any method, technique, or process, including

neutralization, designed to change the physical, chemical, or

biological character or composition of any waste so as to

neutralize such waste or so as to render such waste

nonhazardous, safer for transport, suitable for recovery,

suitable for storage, or reduced in volume. Such term includes

any activity or processing designed to change the physical form

or chemical composition of waste so as to render it neutral or

nonhazardous. The term does not include the conversion of post-

use polymers or recoverable feedstocks through pyrolysis or

gasification.

Section 3. Sections 105(c), 106(b), 402, 507(a) introductory

paragraph and 602(d) of the act are amended to read:

Section 105. Powers and duties of the Environmental Quality

Board.

* * *

its duty shall be to adopt rules and regulations and standards

20190HB1808PN2466 - 7 -

to provide for the coordination of administration and

enforcement of this act between the Department of Environmental

[Resources] Protection and county health departments where they

exist.

* * *

Section 106. Powers and duties of county health departments;

limitation.

* * *

(b) Notwithstanding the grant of powers in subsection (a),

in any case where administration and enforcement of this act by

a county health department shall conflict with administration

and enforcement by the Department of Environmental [Resources]

Protection, administration and enforcement by the Department of

Environmental [Resources] Protection shall take precedence over

administration and enforcement by a county health department.

Section 402. Listing of hazardous waste.

The Environmental Quality Board shall establish rules and

regulations identifying the characteristics of hazardous wastes

and listing particular hazardous wastes which shall be subject

to the provisions of this act. The list promulgated shall in no

event prevent the department from regulating other wastes,

which, although not listed, the department has determined to be

hazardous; the Department of Environmental [Resources]

Protection may regulate such hazardous wastes when the

department has determined such waste poses a substantial present

or potential hazard to the human health or the environment by

any means including, but not limited to, issuance of orders and

the imposition of terms and conditions of permits. The board

shall identify the characteristics of hazardous wastes and list

particular hazardous wastes within 30 days after the effective

20190HB1808PN2466 - 8 -

date of this section, which initial list shall not be subject to

section 107 of this act but shall be promulgated in accordance

with section 204(3) [(relating to omission of notice of proposed

rule making)] of the act of July 31, 1968 (P.L.769, No.240),

referred to as the Commonwealth Documents Law.

Section 507. Siting of hazardous waste treatment and disposal

facilities.

(a) The Department of Environmental [Resources] Protection

shall have the power and authority to develop, prepare and

modify the Pennsylvania Hazardous Waste Facilities Plan. The

plan shall include:

* * *

Section 602. Enforcement orders.

* * *

(d) The Department of Environmental [Resources] Protection

shall have the power to order, orally or in writing, any person

or municipality to immediately suspend or modify hazardous waste

treatment or disposal activities when he determines that

continued operation will jeopardize public health, safety or

welfare. Said order shall be effective upon issuance and may

only be superseded by further department action or, after an

appeal has been perfected, by the Environmental Hearing Board

after notice and hearing. Furthermore, said order may require

remedial actions to be taken in order to prevent harm to public

health, safety or welfare. Within two business days after the

issuance of such oral order, the department shall issue a

written order reciting and modifying, where appropriate, the

terms and conditions contained in the oral order.

Section 4. This act shall take effect in 60 days.

20190HB1808PN2466 - 9 -