(a) The Legislature finds and declares that this section is intended to address the unique circumstances associated with the operation of metal shredding facilities, and the generation and management of wastes generated by metal shredding facilities. The Legislature further declares that this section does not set a precedent applicable to the management, including disposal, of other hazardous wastes.
(b) For purposes of this section, “metal shredding facility” means an operation that uses a shredding technique to process end-of-life vehicles, appliances, and other forms of scrap metal to facilitate the separation and sorting of ferrous metals, nonferrous metals, and other recyclable materials from nonrecyclable materials that are components of the end-of-life vehicles, appliances, and other forms of scrap metal. “Metal shredding facility” does not include a feeder yard, a metal crusher, or a metal baler, if that facility does not otherwise conduct metal shredding operations.
(c) The department, in consultation with the Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery, the State Water Resources Control Board, and affected local air quality management districts, may adopt regulations establishing management standards for metal shredding facilities for hazardous waste management activities within the department’s jurisdiction as an alternative to the requirements specified in this chapter and the regulations adopted pursuant to this chapter, if the department does all of the following:
(1) Prepares an analysis of the activities to which the alternative management standards will apply pursuant to subdivision (d). The department shall first prepare the analysis as a preliminary analysis and make it available to the public at the same time that the department gives notice, pursuant to Section 11346.4 of the Government Code, that it proposes to adopt the alternative management standards. The department shall include in the notice a statement that the department has prepared a preliminary analysis and a statement concerning where a copy of the preliminary analysis can be obtained. The information in the preliminary analysis shall be updated and the department shall make the analysis available to the public as a final analysis not less than 10 working days before the date that the regulation is adopted.
(2) Demonstrates at least one of the conclusions set forth in paragraphs (1) to (4), inclusive, of subdivision (e).
(3) Imposes, as may be necessary, conditions and limitations as part of the alternative management standards that ensure that the hazardous waste management activity to which the alternative management standards will apply will not pose a significant potential hazard to human health or safety or to the environment.
(d) Before the department gives notice of a proposal to adopt the alternative management standards pursuant to subdivision (c), and before the department adopts the regulation, the department shall do all of the following:
(1) Evaluate the operative environmental and public health regulatory oversight of metal shredding facilities, identifying activities that need to be addressed by the alternative management standards, or other advisable regulatory or statutory changes.
(2) Evaluate the hazardous waste management activities.
(3) Prepare, as required by paragraph (1) of subdivision (c), an analysis that addresses all of the following aspects of the activity, to the extent that the alternative management standards can affect these aspects of the activity:
(A) The types of hazardous waste and the estimated amounts of each hazardous waste that are managed as part of the activity and the hazards to human health or safety or to the environment posed by reasonably foreseeable mismanagement of those hazardous wastes and their hazardous constituents. The estimate of the amounts of each hazardous waste that are managed as part of the activity shall be based upon information reasonably available to the department.
(B) The complexity of the activity, and the amount and complexity of operator training, equipment installation and maintenance, and monitoring that are required to ensure that the activity is conducted in a manner that safely and effectively manages each hazardous waste.
(C) The chemical or physical hazards that are associated with the activity and the degree to which those hazards are similar to, or different from, the chemical or physical hazards that are associated with the production processes that are carried out in the facilities that produce the hazardous waste that is managed as part of the activity.
(D) The types of accidents that might reasonably be foreseen to occur during the management of particular types of hazardous waste streams as part of the activity, the likely consequences of those accidents, and the reasonably available actual accident history associated with the activity.
(E) The types of locations where hazardous waste management activities associated with metal shredding and management of treated metal shredder waste may be carried out and the types of hazards or risks that may be posed by proximity to the land uses described in Section 25227. The estimate of the number of locations where the activity may be carried out shall be based upon information reasonably available to the department.
(e) The department shall not give notice proposing the adoption of, and the department shall not adopt, a regulation pursuant to subdivision (c) unless it first demonstrates at least one of the following, using the information developed in the analysis prepared pursuant to subdivision (d) and any other information available to the department:
(1) The requirements that the alternative management standards replace are not significant or important in either of the following situations:
(A) Preventing or mitigating potential hazards to human health or safety or to the environment posed by the activity.
(B) Ensuring that the activity is conducted in compliance with other applicable requirements of this chapter and the regulations adopted pursuant to this chapter.
(2) A requirement is imposed and enforced by another public agency that provides protection of human health and safety and the environment that is as effective as, and equivalent to, the protection provided by the requirement, or requirements, that the alternative management standards replace.
(3) Conditions or limitations imposed as part of the alternative management standards will provide protection of human health and safety and the environment equivalent to the requirement, or requirements, that the alternative management standards replace.
(4) Conditions or limitations imposed as part of the alternative management standards accomplish the same regulatory purpose as the requirement, or requirements, that the alternative management standards replace, but at less cost or with greater administrative convenience, and without increasing potential risks to human health or safety or to the environment.
(f) The department shall not adopt alternative management standards pursuant to this section if those standards are less stringent than the standards that would otherwise apply under the federal act.
(g) Nothing in the alternative management standards authorized by this section is intended to duplicate or conflict with other laws, rules, or regulations adopted by other state agencies or affected local air quality management districts. The department shall, as much as possible, align the alternative management standards with the laws, rules, and regulations of other state agencies or affected local air quality management districts.
(h) The owner or operator of a metal shredding facility, or solid waste disposal facility that has accepted treated metal shredder waste, that may be subject to the alternative management standards shall provide to the department all information and data determined by the department to be relevant to the evaluation and preparation of the analysis required by subparagraphs (A) to (E), inclusive, of paragraph (3) of subdivision (d).
(i) The alternative management standards adopted by the department pursuant to this section may, to the extent it is consistent with the standards that would otherwise apply under the federal act, allow for treated metal shredder waste to be classified and managed as nonhazardous waste, provided that the analysis prepared pursuant to subdivision (d) demonstrates that classification and management as hazardous waste is not necessary to prevent or mitigate potential hazards to human health or safety or to the environment posed by the treated metal shredder waste.
(j) (1) The disposal of treated metal shredder waste shall be regulated pursuant to this chapter and the regulations adopted pursuant to this chapter, unless alternative management standards are adopted by the department pursuant to this section.
(2) If the alternative management standards adopted by the department pursuant to this section result in treated metal shredder waste being classified as nonhazardous waste, the material may be managed in either of the following manners:
(A) It may be used at a unit described in subparagraph (B) as alternative daily cover or for beneficial reuse pursuant to Section 41781.3 of the Public Resources Code and the regulations adopted to implement that section.
(B) It may be placed in a unit that meets the waste discharge requirements issued pursuant to Division 7 (commencing with Section 13000) of the Water Code that allow for discharges of designated waste, as defined in Section 13173 of the Water Code, or of treated metal shredder waste.
(3) This section does not limit the disposal or use of treated metal shredder waste as alternative daily cover pursuant to Section 41781.3 of the Public Resources Code and the regulations adopted to implement that section, or for other authorized beneficial uses if that disposal or use is at a facility meeting the requirements of subparagraph (B) of paragraph (2), is made under the authority of the hazardous waste determinations governing metal shredder waste issued by the department before January 1, 2014, and is made before the department does either of the following:
(A) Rescinds, in accordance with applicable law, the conditional nonhazardous waste classifications issued pursuant to subdivision (f) of Section 66260.200 of Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations with regard to treated metal shredder waste.
(B) Completes the adoption of alternative management standards pursuant to this section.
(k) The department shall complete the analysis described in paragraph (1) of subdivision (c) and subsequent regulatory action before January 1, 2018. All hazardous waste classifications and policies, procedures, or guidance issued by the department before January 1, 2014, governing or related to the generation, treatment, and management of metal shredder waste or treated metal shredder waste shall be inoperative and have no further effect on January 1, 2018, if the department completes its analysis pursuant to subdivision (c) and takes one of the following actions:
(1) Rescinds the conditional nonhazardous waste classifications issued pursuant to subdivision (f) of Section 66260.200 of Title 22 of the California Code of Regulations with regard to that waste.
(2) Adopts alternative management standards pursuant to this section.
(l) The authority of the department to adopt original regulations pursuant to this section shall remain in effect only until January 1, 2018, unless a later enacted statute, which is enacted before January 1, 2018, deletes or extends that date. This subdivision does not invalidate any regulation adopted pursuant to this section before the expiration of the department’s authority.
(m) A regulation adopted pursuant to this section on or before January 1, 2018, shall continue in force and effect after that date, until repealed or revised by the department.
(Added by Stats. 2014, Ch. 756, Sec. 3. (SB 1249) Effective January 1, 2015.)