Compilation of Rules and Regulations of the State of Georgia
Department 391 - RULES OF GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
Chapter 391-3 - ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
Subject 391-3-4 - SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT
Rule 391-3-4-.01 - Definitions

(1) "Active Life" means the period of operation beginning with the initial receipt of solid waste and ending at completion of closure activities.

(2) "Active Portion" means that part of a solid waste handling facility or landfill unit that has received or is receiving wastes and that has not been closed.

(3) "Aquifer" means a geological formation, group of formations, or portion of a formation capable of yielding significant quantities of ground water to wells or springs.

(4) "Affected County" means, in addition to the county in which a facility is or is proposed to be located, each county contiguous to the host county and each county and municipality within a county that has a written agreement with the facility to dispose of solid waste.

(5) "Asbestos-Containing Waste" means any solid waste containing more than 1 percent, by weight, of naturally occurring hydrated mineral silicates separable into commercially used fibers, specifically the asbestiform varieties of serpentine, chrysotile, cummingtonite-grunerite, amosite, riebeckite, crocidolite, anthophyllite, tremolite, and actinolite, using the method specified in 40 CFR, Part 763, Subpart E, Appendix E, Section 1.

(6) "Baling" means a volume reduction technique whereby solid waste is compressed into bales.

(7) "Biomedical Waste" means any solid waste which contains pathological waste, biological waste, cultures, and stocks of infectious agents and associated biologicals, contaminated animal carcasses (body parts, their bedding, and other waste from such animals), chemotherapy waste, discarded medical equipment and parts, not including expendable supplies and materials, which have not been decontaminated, as further defined in Rule 391-3-4-.15.

(8) "Boiler" means a device as defined in Chapter 391-3-11, the Rules for Hazardous Waste Management.

(9) "Bulking Agent" means the non-reactive, solid material that is used to reduce the moisture content of waste via a physical process such that the waste no longer meets the definition of Liquid Waste as defined in these rules.

(10) "CCR Landfill" means an area of land or an excavation that receives CCR and which is not a surface impoundment, an underground injection well, a salt dome formation, a salt bed formation, an underground or surface coal mine, or a cave. For purposes of this Chapter, a CCR landfill also includes sand and gravel pits and quarries that receive CCR, CCR piles, and any practice that does not meet the definition of a beneficial use of CCR. This definition includes both active and inactive landfills.

(11) "CCR Surface Impoundment" means a natural topographic depression, man-made excavation, or diked area owned or operated by an electric utility or independent power producer, which is designed to hold an accumulation of CCR and liquids, and the unit treats, stores, or disposes of CCR. This definition includes both active and inactive surface impoundments, new and lateral expansions of surface impoundments, dewatered surface impoundments, and NPDES-CCR surface impoundments.

(12) "CCR Unit" means any CCR landfill, CCR surface impoundment, or the lateral expansion of such landfill or impoundment, or a combination of more than one of these units, based on the context of the paragraph(s) in which it is used. This term includes both new and existing units, unless otherwise specified.

(13) "Certificate" means a document issued by a college or university of the University System of Georgia or other organization approved by the Director, stating that the operator has met the requirements of the Board for the specified operator classification of the certification program.

(14) "Closure" means a procedure approved by the Division which provides for the cessation of waste receipt at a solid waste disposal site and for the securing of the site in preparation for post-closure.

(15) "Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR)" means fly ash, bottom ash, boiler slag, and flue gas desulfurization materials generated from burning coal for the purpose of generating electricity by electric utilities and independent power producers.

(16) "Collector" means the person or persons as defined herein who, under agreements, verbal or written, with or without compensation does the work of collecting and/or transporting solid wastes, from industries, offices, retail outlets, businesses, institutions, and/or similar locations, or from residential dwellings, provided however, that this definition shall not include an individual collecting and/or transporting waste from his own single family dwelling unit.

(17) "Commercial solid waste" means all types of solid waste generated by stores, offices, restaurants, warehouses, and other nonmanufacturing activities, excluding residential and industrial wastes.

(18) "Composting" means the controlled biological decomposition of organic matter into a stable, odor free humus.

(19) "Construction/Demolition Waste" means waste building materials and rubble resulting from construction, remodeling, repair, and demolition operations on pavements, houses, commercial buildings and other structures. Such waste include, but are not limited to asbestos containing waste, wood, bricks, metal, concrete, wall board, paper, cardboard, inert waste landfill material, and other non-putrescible wastes which have a low potential for groundwater contamination.

(20) "Construction/Demolition Waste Landfill" means a landfill unit that accepts construction/demolition waste. A Construction/Demolition Waste unit also may receive inert waste and yard trimmings and may be publicly or privately owned.

(21) "Contaminant which is likely to pose a danger to human health" means any constituent in Appendix I, II, III, or IV or other site specific constituents as specified by the Division in the Groundwater Monitoring or Corrective Action Plan that is found at levels statistically confirmed above a groundwater protection standard.

(22) "Detected" means statistically significant evidence of contamination has been determined to exist by using methods specified in Rule 391-3-4-.14.

(23) "Dimension Stone Fines" means small stone particles usually resulting from sawing, grinding, or polishing dimension stone with abrasive grit and water or other mechanical method. The process producing the dimension stone fines must be water based and not include the use of oils or chemicals.

(24) "Dimension Stone Spalls" means Dimension Stone portions including slabs, blocks, and pieces removed from monolithic commercial dimension stone products during processing by cutting, breaking, or chipping. May also include dimension stone rejected during processing due to cracking, staining, or other defects. The process producing the dimension stone spalls must be water based and must not include the use of oils or chemicals.

(25) "Director" means the Director of Environmental Protection Division of the Department of Natural Resources.

(26) "Disposal Facility" means any facility or location where the final disposition of solid waste occurs and includes, but is not limited to, landfilling and solid waste thermal treatment technology facilities.

(27) "Division" means the Environmental Protection Division of the Department of Natural Resources.

(28) "Generator" means any person in Georgia or in any other state who creates solid waste.

(29) "Garbage" means food waste including waste accumulations of animal or vegetable matter used or intended for use as food, or that attends the preparation, use, cooking, dealing in or storing of meat, fish, fowl, fruit or vegetables.

(30) "Groundwater" means water below the land surface in a zone of saturation.

(31) "Hazardous Waste" means any solid waste which has been defined as hazardous waste in regulations promulgated by the Board of Natural Resources, Chapter 391-3-11.

(32) "High Moisture Content Waste" means sludge, non-hazardous solidified liquids and bulking agents and/or solidification/stabilization agents with moisture content greater than 40%. The moisture content of non-hazardous household waste is excluded from this definition.

(33) "Household waste" means any solid waste (including garbage, trash, and sanitary waste in septic tanks) derived from households (including single and multiple residences, hotels and motels, bunkhouses, ranger stations, crew quarters, campgrounds, picnic grounds, and day-use recreation areas).

(34) "Host Local Government" means the host county or other local governmental jurisdiction within whose boundaries a municipal solid waste disposal facility is located.

(35) "Industrial Furnace" means a device as defined in Chapter 391-3-11, the Rules for Hazardous Waste Management.

(36) "Industrial Waste" means solid waste generated by manufacturing or industrial processes that is not a hazardous waste regulated under the Hazardous Waste Management Act and regulations promulgated by the Board of Natural Resources, Chapter 391-3-11. Such waste includes, but is not limited to, wastes resulting from the following manufacturing processes: Electric power generation; fertilizer/agricultural chemicals; food and related products/by-products; inorganic chemicals; iron and steel manufacturing; leather and leather products; nonferrous metals manufacturing/foundries; inorganic chemicals; plastics and resins manufacturing; pulp and paper industry; rubber and miscellaneous plastic products; stone, glass, clay, and concrete products; textile manufacturing; transportation equipment; and water treatment. This term does not include mining waste or oil or gas waste.

(37) "Inert Waste Landfill" means a disposal facility accepting only wastes that will not or are not likely to cause production of leachate of environmental concern. Such wastes are limited to earth and earth-like products, concrete, cured asphalt, rock, bricks, yard trimmings, stumps, limbs, and leaves. This definition excludes industrial and demolition waste not specifically listed above.

(38) "Lateral expansion" means a horizontal expansion of the waste boundaries of an existing MSWLF unit or landfill unit.

(39) "Leachate" means a liquid that has passed through or emerged from solid waste and contains soluble, suspended, or miscible materials removed from such wastes.

(40) "Landfill Unit" means an area of land of which or an excavation in which solid waste is placed for permanent disposal and which is not a land application unit, surface impoundment, injection well, or compost pile. Permanent disposal requires the placement of daily, intermediate, and/or final earth, synthetic, or a combination of earth and synthetic cover over the solid waste.

(41) "Leachate Collection System" means a system at a landfill for collection of the leachate which may percolate through the waste and into the soils surrounding the landfill.

(42) "Liner" means a continuous layer of natural or man-made materials beneath or on the sides of a disposal site or disposal site cell which restricts the downward or lateral escape of solid waste constituents, or leachate.

(43) "Liquid Waste" means any waste material that is determined to contain "free liquids" as defined by Method 9095 (Paint Filter Liquids Test), as described in "Test Methods for the Evaluation of Solid Wastes, Physical/Chemical Methods" (EPA Pub. No. SW-846).

(44) "Materials Recovery Facility" means a solid waste handling facility that provides for the extraction from solid waste of recoverable materials, materials suitable for use as a fuel or soil amendment, or any combination of such materials.

(45) "Monofill" means a method of solid waste disposal that involves the landfilling of one waste type or wastes having very similar characteristics in a segregated trench or area which is physically separated from dissimilar or incompatible waste.

(46) "Mulch" means a product produced by grinding, shredding or chipping of yard trimmings, land-clearing debris, untreated and unpainted wood, or any combination thereof, that has not undergone controlled aerobic decomposition to produce a stabilized organic product.

(47) "Mulching" means the grinding, shredding or chipping of yard trimmings, land-clearing debris, untreated and unpainted wood, or any combination thereof, that has not undergone controlled aerobic decomposition to produce a stabilized organic product.

(48) "Municipal Solid Waste" means any solid waste derived from households, including garbage, trash, and sanitary waste in septic tanks and means solid waste from single-family and multifamily residences, hotels and motels, bunkhouses, campgrounds, picnic grounds, and day use recreation areas. The term includes yard trimmings, construction or demolition waste, and commercial solid waste, but does not include solid waste from mining, agricultural, or silvicultural operations or industrial processes or operations.

(49) "Municipal Solid Waste Landfill (MSWLF) Unit" means a discrete area of land or an excavation that receives household waste, and that is not a land application unit, surface impoundment, injection well, or waste pile, as those terms are defined under 40 CFR Part 257.2 . A MSWLF unit also may receive other types of solid waste, such as commercial solid waste, nonhazardous sludge, small quantity generator waste and industrial solid waste. Such a landfill may be publicly or privately owned.

(50) "Municipal Solid Waste Disposal Facility" means any facility or location where the final deposition of any amount of municipal solid waste occurs, whether or not mixed with or including commercial or industrial solid waste, and includes, but is not limited to, municipal solid waste landfills and solid waste thermal treatment technology facilities.

(51) "Municipal Solid Waste Disposal Facility Operator" means the operator certified in accordance with Rule 391-3-4-.18 and stationed on the site who is in responsible charge of and has direct supervision of the daily field operations of a municipal solid waste disposal facility to ensure that the facility operates in compliance with the permit.

(52) "Municipal Solid Waste Landfill" means a disposal facility where any amount of municipal solid waste, whether or not mixed with or including commercial waste, industrial waste, nonhazardous sludges, or small quantity generator hazardous wastes, is disposed of by means of placing an approved cover thereon.

(53) "Open Burning" means the combustion of solid waste without:

(54) "Open Dump" means a disposal facility at which solid waste from one or more sources is left to decompose, burn or to otherwise create a threat to human health or the environment.

(55) "Operating Records" means written records including, but not limited to, permit applications, monitoring reports, inspection reports, and other demonstrations of compliance with this Chapter, which records are kept on file at the facility or at an alternative location as approved by the Division.

(56) "Operator" means the person(s) responsible for the overall operation of a facility or part of a facility.

(57) "Owner" means the person(s) who owns a facility or part of a facility.

(58) "Person" means the State of Georgia or any other state or any agency or institution thereof, and any municipality, county, political subdivision, public or private corporation, solid waste authority, special district empowered to engage in solid waste management activities, individual, partnership, association or other entity in Georgia or any other state. This term also includes any officer or governing or managing body of any municipality, political subdivision, solid waste authority, special district empowered to engage in solid waste activities, or public or private corporation in Georgia or any other state. This term also includes employees, departments, and agencies of the federal government.

(59) "Post-closure" means a procedure approved by the Division to provide for long- term financial assurance, monitoring and maintenance of a solid waste disposal facility to protect human health and the environment.

(60) "Private Industry Solid Waste Disposal Facility" means a disposal facility which is operated exclusively by and for a private solid waste generator for the purpose of accepting solid waste generated exclusively by said private solid waste generator.

(61) "Processing Operation" means any method, system or other treatment designed to change the physical form or chemical content of solid waste and includes all aspects of its management (administration, personnel, land, equipment, buildings and other elements).

(62) "Putrescible Wastes" means wastes that are capable of being quickly decomposed by microorganisms. Examples of putrescible wastes include but are not necessarily limited to kitchen wastes, animal manure, offal, hatchery and poultry processing plant wastes, dead animals, garbage and wastes which are contaminated by such wastes.

(63) "Qualified Groundwater Scientist" means a professional engineer or geologist registered to practice in Georgia who has received a baccalaureate or post-graduate degree in the natural sciences or engineering and has sufficient training and experience in groundwater hydrology and related fields that enable that individual to make sound professional judgments regarding groundwater monitoring, contaminant fate and transport, and corrective action.

(64) "Radioactive Waste" means waste which has been defined as radioactive waste in regulations promulgated by the Board of Natural Resources, Chapter 391-3-9.

(65) "Recovered Materials" means those materials which have known use, reuse, or recycling potential; can be feasibly used, reused or recycled; and have been diverted or removed from the solid waste stream for sale, use, reuse, or recycling, whether or not requiring subsequent separation and processing.

(66) "Recovered Materials Processing Facility" means a facility engaged solely in the storage, processing, recycling, and resale or reuse of recovered materials. Such facility shall not be considered a solid waste handling facility; provided, however, any solid waste generated by such facility shall be subject to all applicable laws and regulations relating to such solid waste.

(67) "Recycling" means any process by which materials which would otherwise become solid waste are collected, separated, or processed and reused or returned to use in the form of raw materials, intermediates, or products which can be used as a substitute for products not derived by such processes.

(68) "Regional Landfill or Regional Solid Waste Disposal Facility" means a facility owned by a county, municipality, or special district empowered to engage in solid waste management activities, or any combination thereof, which serves two or more any combination of counties, municipalities, or special solid waste districts.

(69) "Release" means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, emitting, releasing, leaking, or placing of any substance into or on any land or water of the state.

(70) "Relevant Point of Compliance" is a vertical surface located at the hydraulically downgradient limit of the waste management unit boundary that extends down into the uppermost aquifer underlying the facility. This point will be specified by the Director and shall be no more than 150 meters from the waste management unit boundary and shall be located on land owned by the owner of the landfill unit. The downgradient monitoring system must be installed at this point, and monitoring conducted to ensure that the concentration values listed in Table 1 of Rule 391-3-4-.07 will not be exceeded in the uppermost aquifer.

(71) "Run-off" means any rainwater, leachate, or other liquid that drains over land from any part of a facility.

(72) "Run-on" means any rainwater, leachate, or other liquid that drains over land onto any part of a facility.

(73) "Saturated Zone" means that part of the earth's crust in which all voids are filled with water.

(74) "Scavenge" means the unpermitted removal of solids waste from a solid waste handling facility.

(75) "Shredding" means the process by which solid waste is cut or torn into smaller pieces for final disposal or further processing.

(76) "Significant Groundwater Recharge Areas" means any area as designated on Hydrologic Atlas 18 Most Significant Ground-Water Recharge Areas of Georgia, 1989, as published by the Georgia Geologic Survey, Environmental Protection Division, Georgia Department of Natural Resources, unless an applicant for a solid waste handling permit or other interested party can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Director that an area designated on Hydrologic Atlas 18 is or is not, in fact, a significant groundwater recharge area.

(77) "Site" means the entire property a permitted solid waste handling facility is located within and includes all activities within that property.

(78) "Sludge" means any solid, semi-solid, or liquid waste generated from a municipal, commercial, or industrial wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility exclusive of the treated effluent from a wastewater treatment plant.

(79) "Solid Waste" means any garbage or refuse; sludge from a wastewater 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 recovered materials; post-use plastics and nonrecycled feedstock that are subsequently processed using a pyrolysis or gasification to fuels and chemicals process; solid or dissolved materials in domestic sewage; solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or industrial discharges that are point sources subject to permit under 33 U.S.C. Section 1342; or source, special nuclear, or by-product material as defined by the federal Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (68 Stat. 923).

(80) "Solid Waste Handling" means the storage, collection, transportation, treatment, utilization, processing, or disposal of solid waste, or any combination of such activities but does not include recovered materials processing or pyrolysis or gasification to fuels and chemicals processes, or the holding of post-use plastics or nonrecycled feedstock at a pyrolysis facility or gasification to fuels and chemicals facility prior to processing at the facility where those materials are being held to ensure production is not interrupted.

(81) "Solid Waste Handling Facility" means any facility, the primary purpose of which is the storage, collection, transportation, treatment, utilization, processing, or disposal, or any combination thereof, of solid waste but does not include recovered materials processing facilities or pyrolysis or gasification to fuels and chemicals facilities.

(82) "Solid Waste Handling Permit" means written authorization granted to a person by the Director to engage in solid waste handling.

(83) "Solid Waste Management Act" or the "Act", wherever referred to in these Rules, means the Georgia Comprehensive Solid Waste Management Act, O.C.G.A. 12-8-20, et seq.

(84) "Solid Waste Thermal Treatment Technology" means any solid waste handling facility, the purpose of which is to reduce the amount of solid waste to be disposed of through a process of combustion, with or without the process of waste to energy.

(85) "Solidification" means the process of:

(86) "Solidification/stabilization (S/S) agents" means binders and/or supplemental additives that chemically react with the liquid waste, resulting in a solid material with structural integrity where the liquid waste is bound and cannot be separated from the solid material.

(87) "Tire" means a continuous solid or pneumatic rubber covering designed for encircling the wheel of a motor vehicle and which is neither attached to the motor vehicle nor a part of the motor vehicle as original equipment.

(88) "Transfer Station" means a facility used to transfer solid waste from one transportation vehicle to another for transportation to a disposal facility or processing operation.

(89) "Uppermost Aquifer" means the geologic formation nearest the natural ground surface that is an aquifer, as well as lower aquifers that are hydraulically interconnected with this aquifer within the solid waste handling facility's property boundary.

(90) "Vertical Expansion" means the expansion of landfill beyond the approved maximum final elevations and within the approved waste management boundaries of the existing permit.

(91) "Waste Management Unit Boundary" means a vertical surface located at the hydraulically downgradient limit of the unit. This vertical surface extends down into the uppermost aquifer.

(92) "Waste-to Energy Facility" means a solid waste handling facility that provides for the extraction and utilization of energy from municipal solid waste through a process of combustion.

(93) "Yard Trimmings" means leaves, brush, grass, clippings, shrub and tree prunings, discarded Christmas trees, nursery and greenhouse vegetative residuals, and vegetative matter resulting from landscaping development and maintenance other than mining, agricultural, and silvicultural operations.