South Carolina Code of Regulations
Chapter 61 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL
Subchapter 61-107 - Solid Waste Management
Subchapter 61-107.15 - Solid Waste Management: Land Application of Solid Waste
Section 61-107.15.B - Definitions

1. "Agricultural Laboratory" means a laboratory that performs a standard agricultural soil test, such as that performed by the Clemson Soil Test Laboratory for the purpose of recommending lime and plant nutrients needed or appropriate for good crop or forest production purposes based on Best Management Practices.

2. "Agricultural land" means any land managed for the production of food, animal feed, or fiber crops, including timber and wood products.

3. "Agronomic rate, silvicultural rate, and horticultural rate" is that application rate of solid waste which supplies the amount of one or more plant nutrients needed for good crop and forest growth or which will neutralize excess soil acidity; but the nutrient requirement is not exceeded to the extent that groundwater exceeds applicable South Carolina groundwater quality standards.

4. "Bark" means the outer covering of the woody stems, branches, roots, and the main trunks of trees and other woody plants.

5. "Certified Laboratory" means a laboratory that has been certified by the State Environmental Laboratory Certification Program to perform specific analyses. All analyses required by this Regulation to be performed by a Certified Laboratory must be done by the methodology outlined in the most current issue of the EPA Publication SW-846 "Test Methods for Evaluating Solid Waste, Physical/Chemical Methods".

6. "Class I Solid Waste," for the purposes of this regulation, means those solid wastes which have the potential to add some nutrient and/or pH adjustment benefit to the soil and require permitting by the Department prior to land application of that waste, e.g., wood ash, coal ash, green liquor dregs, and slaker grit.

7. "Class II Solid Waste," for the purposes of this regulation, means those solid wastes which, due to lack of substantiating data needed to calculate agronomic rate or to document that the material is non-toxic to plants and wildlife normally associated with the crop ecosystem, require issuance of a Department Research, Development, and Demonstration Permit pursuant to R.61-107.10.

8. "Class III Solid Waste," for the purposes of this regulation, means those solid wastes which have less potential to add nutrients to the soil or correct soil acidity than Class I wastes, and are considered to be innocuous with regard to effects on soil, plants and water resources when applied at approved rates. Prior to application, registration by the Department in lieu of permitting is required for Class III wastes, e.g., cotton mote waste, cotton gin trash, bark, woodyard waste, flume grit.

9. "Class IV Solid Waste," for the purposes of this regulation, means those solid wastes used for land reclamation and other projects when the application rate exceeds ten (10) dry tons per acre per year and scientific/technical data is submitted to ensure the proposed application rate will have no detrimental impact on the environment and public health, and is non-toxic to plants and wildlife normally associated with the crop ecosystem. Class IV solid wastes require permitting by the Department prior to application.

10. "Coal ash" means the residue remaining after combustion of coal and includes bottom ash, fly ash, boiler slag and flue gas desulfurization ("FGD") products.

11. "Commercial fertilizer," as defined in the South Carolina Fertilizer Law of 1954, S.C. Code Section 46-25-20, means any substance containing one or more recognized plant nutrients which are used for plant nutrient content and designed for use or claimed to have value in promoting plant growth, except unmanipulated animal and vegetable manures, marl, lime, limestone, and wood ashes.

12. "Cotton gin trash" means the residual material left as a result of ginning and cleaning cotton; it includes burs, stems, leaves, weed seed, waste cotton fiber, other plant material, and soil.

13. "Cotton mote waste" means the residual material remaining after processing of cotton mote and residue from cotton carding operations; it includes immature cotton fiber and many of the same materials found in cotton gin trash.

14. "Cumulative metal loading rate" means the maximum amount of an element which can be applied to an area of land.

15. "Department" means the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control.

16. "Flume grit" means a mixture of tree bark, sand, soil, small twigs and leaves, and other debris that settles out of water used in a woodyard log flume.

17. "Generator" means any person who produces solid waste that is land applied.

18. "Green liquor dregs" means residues from the paper pulp-making process removed by sedimentation from green liquor clarification. The material is predominantly insoluble carbonates, oxides and sulfates of calcium, magnesium, aluminum and silicon.

19. "Horticultural" means land used for production of flowers, shrubs, fruits and ornamentals.

20. "Inorganic constituent" is one of the ninety-two (92) naturally occurring chemical elements or combination of those elements; generally, this excludes constituents which consist of carbon compounds other than carbonates.

21. "Land application" means the spreading of non-hazardous solid waste on the land surface and/or the mechanical incorporation of non-hazardous solid waste into the soil at agronomic or silvicultural rates.

22. "Land Reclamation" means the restoration of land for useful purposes and protection of the natural resources of the surrounding area by establishing on a continuous basis the vegetative cover, soil stability, water conditions, and the safety conditions of the area.

23. "Lime" means calcium carbonate or other calcium and magnesium compounds or mixtures which are alkaline in nature and used to neutralize excess soil acidity.

24. "Metal," for purposes of these regulation, means any of the eight (8) naturally occurring elements as listed in Section C.13., and which include arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, nickel, selenium, and zinc.

25. "Open dumping" means any unpermitted solid waste disposal activity.

26. "Pasture" means land used for grazing livestock or forage crop production.

27. "Permit" means the process by which the Department can ensure cognizance of, as well as control over, the management of solid wastes.

28. "Person" means an individual, corporation, company, association, partnership, unit of local government, state agency, federal agency, or other legal entity.

29. "Representative sample and representative analysis," for the purposes of this regulation, mean that the chemical analyses of at least three samples (each sample being a composite of several subsamples) shall be used to calculate the amount of waste to be applied to a specific area for crop production purposes with a tolerance of +-25%, unless otherwise approved by the Department. That tolerance applies to whichever constituent or characteristic, such as alkalinity, metal concentration, or nitrogen content, that limits or establishes the application rate.

30. "Silvicultural" means land used for growing trees, i.e., forestry.

31. "Slaker grit" means the unburned residues and particulate, predominantly carbonates, oxides and sulfates of calcium, magnesium and sodium removed from the causticizing process that recycles green liquor to white liquor for making paper pulp.

32. "Solid waste," for the purposes of this regulation, means any garbage, refuse, or other discarded material from industrial, commercial, mining, agricultural, silvicultural, and horticultural operations and from community activities. This term does not include solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage, recovered materials, or solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or industrial discharges which are point sources subject to NPDES permits under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended, or the Pollution Control Act of South Carolina, as amended, or source, special nuclear, or by-product material as defined by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, 42 USCA 2011 et seq. Also excluded from this definition are application of fertilizer and animal manure during normal agricultural, silvicultural, and horticultural operations, or refuse as defined and regulated pursuant to the South Carolina Mining Act, S.C. Code Section 48-20-10, et seq., including processed mineral waste, which will not have a significant adverse impact on the environment.

33. "Soluble salts" means the amount of chemical constituents in non-hazardous solid waste which are readily soluble in water as estimated by electrical conductivity.

34. "Surface water body," for the purposes of this regulation, means any body of water on the land's surface which holds visible water for greater than six (6) consecutive months, excluding drainage ditches, sedimentation ponds and other man-made operational features on the site.

35. "Total alkalinity" means a measure of the ability of a substance to neutralize acidity and is expressed as the calcium carbonate equivalent.

36. "Wood ash" means the residue derived from the combustion of wood, wood waste, bark or other plant tissue or products, including both bottom ash, fly ash and their mixtures.

37. "Woodyard wastes" means non-contaminated residues from woodyard operations, which may include bark, portions of tree limbs and logs, sand or soil, sawdust and wood chips.