Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 9, March 1, 2024
NECESSITY, FUNCTION, AND CONFORMITY:
KRS
224.10-100 requires the Environmental and
Public Protection Cabinet to prescribe administrative regulations for the
prevention, abatement, and control of air pollution. This administrative
regulation provides for standards of performance for existing medical waste
incinerators.
Section 1. Definitions.
As used in this administrative regulation, all terms not defined in this
section shall have the meaning given them in
401 KAR
50:010.
(1)
"Affected facility" means a device for which construction, modification, or
reconstruction commenced before February 7, 1991, that combusts material which,
if included in the waste stream, would be medical waste.
(2) "Afterburner" means an auxiliary burner
for destroying unburned or partially burned combustion gases after they have
passed from the combustion chamber.
(3) "Biologicals" means a biological product
used in the prevention or treatment of disease.
(4) "Commercial solid waste" means all types
of solid waste generated by stores, offices, restaurants, warehouses, and other
nonmanufacturing activities, excluding household and industrial wastes.
Commercial solid waste includes waste from medical facilities, schools, and
other institutions that is not medical waste.
(5) "Hazardous waste" has the meaning given
it in
KRS
224.01-010.
(6) "Household solid waste" means solid
waste, including garbage and trash generated by single and multiple family
residences, hotels, motels, bunkhouses, ranger stations, crew quarters, and
recreational areas such as picnic areas, parks, and campgrounds.
(7) "Industrial waste" means a liquid,
gaseous, or solid waste substance resulting from a process of industry,
manufacture, trade, or business, or from the development, processing, or
recovery of a natural resource.
(8)
"Mass burn rotary waterwall incinerator" means an incinerator that combusts
waste in a cylindrical rotary waterwall furnace.
(9) "Mass burn waterwall incinerator" means
an incinerator that combusts waste in a conventional waterwall
furnace.
(10) "Medical waste"
means:
(a) Cultures and stocks of infectious
agents, including specimen cultures collected from medical and pathological
laboratories, cultures and stocks of infectious agents from research and
industrial laboratories, wastes from the production of biologicals, discarded
live and attenuated vaccines, and culture dishes and devices used to transfer,
inoculate, and mix cultures;
(b)
Waste human blood and blood products such as serum, plasma, and other blood
components;
(c) Pathological
wastes, such as tissues, organs, body parts, and body fluids that are removed
during surgery and autopsy;
(d) All
discarded sharps, including but not limited to hypodermic needles, syringes,
Pasteur pipettes, broken glass, scalpels, scalpel blades, glass vials, etc.,
used in patient care, autopsy, embalming, or which have come into contact with
infectious agents during use in medical, research, or industrial
laboratories;
(e) Carcasses and
body parts of animals that were exposed to pathogens in research, in the
production of biologicals, or in the in vivo testing of pharmaceuticals;
and
(f) Other wastes as may be
designated by a permit issued by the Division for Air
Quality.
(11) "Metals"
means condensible metals emitted from units. For the purpose of this
administrative regulation, particulate matter shall serve as a surrogate for
the measurement and control of metals.
(12) "Modular excess air incinerator" means
an incinerator that combusts waste and that is not field-erected and has
multiple combustion chambers, all of which are designed to operate at
conditions with combustion air amounts in excess of theoretical air
requirements.
(13) "Modular starved
air incinerator" means an incinerator that combusts waste and that is not
field-erected and has multiple combustion chambers in which the primary
combustion chamber is designed to operate at substoichiometric
conditions.
(14) "Multiple-chamber
incinerator" means an incinerator consisting of at least two (2) refractory
lined combustion chambers (primary and secondary) in series, physically
separated by refractory walls, and interconnected by gas passage ports or
ducts.
(15) "Municipal solid waste"
or "MSW" means household solid waste and commercial solid waste.
(16) "Organics" means organic compounds
emitted from units and includes dioxins or furans. For the purpose of this
administrative regulation, dioxin or furan shall serve as a surrogate for the
measurement and control of organics.
(17) "Particulate matter" means total
particulate matter emitted from affected facilities.
(18) "Plant" means one (1) or more units at
the same location for which construction, modification, or reconstruction is
commenced before February 7, 1991.
(19) "Plant capacity" means the aggregate
unit capacity of all units at a plant for which construction, modification, or
reconstruction is commenced before February 7, 1991.
(20) "Same location" means the same or
contiguous property that is under common ownership or control, including
properties that are separated only by a street, road, highway, or other public
right-of-way. Common ownership or control includes properties that are owned,
leased, or operated by the same entity, parent entity, subsidiary, subdivision,
or a combination thereof, including a municipality or other governmental unit,
or a quasi-governmental authority (e.g., a public utility district or waste
management district).
(21)
"Uncontrolled hydrogen chloride emission rate" means the hydrogen chloride
emission rate that would occur from the combustion of medical waste, or other
wastes combined with medical waste.
(22) "Uncontrolled sulfur dioxide emission
rate" means the sulfur dioxide emission rate that would occur from the
combustion of medical waste or other wastes combined with medical
waste.
(23) "Unit" means a device
that combusts medical waste including, but not limited to, field-erected
incinerators (with or without heat recovery), modular incinerators (starved air
or excess air), boilers (i.e., steam generating units), and furnaces (whether
suspension-fired, grate-fired, mass-fired, or fluidized bed-fired).
(24) "Unit capacity" means the maximum
designed charging rate of the waste for an individual unit.
(25) "Waste" has the meaning given it in
KRS
224.01-010.
(26) "Waste management district" has the
meaning given it in
KRS
224.01-010.
Section 2. Applicability.
(1) This administrative regulation shall
apply to each affected facility which means each unit for which construction,
modification, or reconstruction commenced before February 7, 1991. Affected
facilities which combine and combust MSW, solid waste, or hazardous waste with
medical waste shall be subject to this administrative regulation. Affected
facilities which combust only MSW shall be subject to
401 KAR
61:011.
(2) Physical or operational changes made to
an existing unit to comply with this administrative regulation shall be
considered a modification or reconstruction and shall not subject an existing
unit to
401 KAR
59:023.
(3) The permitting exemption for small
incinerators in
401 KAR
52:040, Section 2(1)(b), shall not apply to affected
facilities.
(4) Siting criteria. No
owner or operator of an affected facility subject to
401 KAR
47:030 shall construct or operate the affected
facility in a manner that will violate the requirements of that administrative
regulation.
Section 3.
Emission Standards.
(1) On and after the date
on which the initial performance test is completed or required to be completed
by Section 6 of this administrative regulation, no owner or operator of an
affected facility with a plant capacity of 500 pounds per hour or less shall
cause or allow to be discharged into the atmosphere from the affected facility:
(a) Particulate matter in excess of 229
milligrams per dry standard cubic meter (zero and one-tenth (0.1) grains per
dry standard cubic foot) of exhaust gas, corrected to seven (7) percent oxygen
(dry basis);
(b) Carbon monoxide in
excess of 100 parts per million by volume corrected to seven (7) percent oxygen
(dry basis);
(c) Visible air
contaminants in excess of ten (10) percent opacity.
(2) On and after the date on which the
initial performance test is completed or required to be completed by Section 6
of this administrative regulation, no owner or operator of an affected facility
with a plant capacity greater than 500 pounds per hour but less than or equal
to 250 tons per day, shall cause or allow to be discharged into the atmosphere
from the affected facility:
(a) Particulate
matter emissions in excess of 183 milligrams per dry standard cubic meter (0.08
grains per dry standard cubic foot) of exhaust gas, corrected to seven (7)
percent oxygen (dry basis);
(b)
Carbon monoxide emissions in excess of 100 parts per million by volume
corrected to seven (7) percent oxygen (dry basis);
(c) Sulfur dioxide
(SO2) emissions in excess of fifteen (15) percent of the
uncontrolled SO2 emission rate (eighty-five (85) percent
reduction) (by weight) on an hourly basis or thirty (30) parts per million by
volume, corrected to seven (7) percent oxygen (dry basis), whichever is less
stringent. Excluded from this provision are emissions from affected facilities
which combust only medical waste;
(d) Visible air contaminants in excess of ten
(10) percent opacity.
(3)
On and after the date on which the initial performance test is completed or
required to be completed by Section 6 of this administrative regulation, no
owner or operator of an affected facility with a plant capacity greater than
250 tons per day shall cause or allow to be discharged into the atmosphere:
(a) Particulate matter emissions in excess of
183 milligrams per dry standard cubic meter (0.08 grains per dry standard cubic
foot) of exhaust gas, corrected to seven (7) percent oxygen (dry
basis);
(b) Carbon monoxide
emissions in excess of 100 parts per million by volume corrected to seven (7)
percent oxygen (dry basis);
(c)
Hydrochloric acid (HC1) emissions in excess of five (5) percent of the
uncontrolled HC1 emission rate (ninety-five (95) percent reduction) (by weight)
on an hourly basis or twenty-five (25) parts per million by volume, corrected
to seven (7) percent oxygen (dry basis), whichever is less stringent;
(d) Sulfur dioxide
(SO2) emissions in excess of fifteen (15) percent of the
uncontrolled SO2 emission rate (eighty-five (85) percent
reduction) (by weight) on an hourly basis or thirty (30) parts per million by
volume, corrected to seven (7) percent oxygen (dry basis), whichever is less
stringent. Excluded from this provision are emissions from affected facilities
which combust only medical waste;
(e) Visible air contaminants in excess of ten
(10) percent opacity.
Section 4. Standards for Operating Practices.
(1) The requirements for unit operating
practices listed in
401 KAR
59:023, Section 4, shall apply to all units, except as
provided in subsection (2) of this section.
(2) Owners or operators of affected
facilities which have an incinerator without a secondary chamber but are
equipped with an afterburner operated at a temperature of 982 + (plus or minus)
93 degrees Celsius (1800 + (plus or minus) 200 degrees Fahrenheit) may choose
to meet a more restrictive opacity standard of zero (0) percent in lieu of
meeting the secondary chamber requirement while the affected facility is
combusting medical waste. All other emission standards listed in
401 KAR
59:023, Section 3 and the operating practices listed
in
401 KAR
59:023, Section 4 shall apply.
Section 8. Compliance Timetable.
(1) Except as provided in subsection (2) of
this section, planning, awarding of contracts, and installation of equipment
capable of attaining the level of the emission standards and operating
standards established in this administrative regulation shall be completed
within three (3) years after February 7, 1991. Final compliance with this
administrative regulation, except as provided in subsection (2) of this
section, shall be demonstrated no later than December 31, 1994.
(2) Planning, awarding of contracts, and
installation of equipment and procedures capable of attaining the level of
materials separation specified in
401 KAR
59:021, Section 8 shall be completed by December 31,
1992. The initial demonstration of compliance with the materials separation
provisions (percent reduction) specified in
401 KAR
59:021, Section 10 shall be completed by December 31,
1994. The training requirement in Section 5 of this administrative regulation
shall be completed within one (1) year from February 7,
1991.