Current through Reg. 49, No. 12; March 22, 2024
(b) Definitions. The following words and
terms, when used in this section, shall have the following meanings, unless the
context clearly indicates otherwise.
(1)
Activities associated with the exploration, development, and production of oil
or gas or geothermal resources--Activities associated with:
(A) the drilling of exploratory wells, oil
wells, gas wells, or geothermal resource wells;
(B) the production of oil, gas, or geothermal
resources, including:
(i) activities
associated with the drilling of injection water source wells that penetrate the
base of usable quality water;
(ii)
activities associated with the drilling of cathodic protection holes associated
with the cathodic protection of wells and pipelines subject to the jurisdiction
of the commission to regulate the production of oil, gas, or geothermal
resources;
(iii) activities
associated with natural gas or natural gas liquids processing plants or
reservoir pressure maintenance or repressurizing plants;
(iv) activities associated with any
underground natural gas storage facility, provided the terms "natural gas" and
"storage facility" shall have the meanings set out in Texas Natural Resources
Code, §
RSA
91.173;
(v) activities associated with any
underground hydrocarbon storage facility, provided the terms "hydrocarbons" and
"underground hydrocarbon storage facility" shall have the meanings set out in
Texas Natural Resources Code, §
RSA
91.201; and
(vi) activities associated with the storage,
handling, reclamation, gathering, transportation, or distribution of oil or gas
prior to the refining of such oil or prior to the use of such gas in any
manufacturing process or as a residential or industrial fuel;
(C) the operation, abandonment,
and proper plugging of wells subject to the jurisdiction of the commission to
regulate the exploration, development, and production of oil or gas or
geothermal resources; and
(D) the
discharge, storage, handling, transportation, reclamation, or disposal of waste
or any other substance or material associated with any activity listed in
subparagraphs (A) - (C) of this paragraph.
(2) Administrator--The administrator of the
United States Environmental Protection Agency, or the administrator's
designee.
(3) Authorized
facility--Either:
(A) an authorized recycling
or reclamation facility; or
(B) an
authorized treatment, storage, or disposal facility.
(4) Authorized recycling or reclamation
facility--A facility permitted in accordance with the requirements of 40 CFR,
Parts 270 and 124 or Part 271, if required, at which hazardous waste that is to
be recycled or reclaimed is managed and whose owner or operator is subject to
regulation under:
(A)
40 CFR,
§261.6<subdiv>(c)</subdiv>
or an equivalent state program (concerning facilities that recycle recyclable
materials); or
(B) 40 CFR, Part
266, Subparts C (concerning recyclable materials used in a manner constituting
disposal), F (concerning recyclable materials used for precious metal
recovery), or G (concerning spent lead-acid batteries being reclaimed), or an
equivalent state program.
(5) Authorized representative--The person
responsible for the overall operation of all or any part of a facility or
generation site.
(6) Authorized
treatment, storage, or disposal facility--A facility at which hazardous waste
is treated, stored, or disposed of that:
(A)
has received either:
(i) a permit (or interim
status) in accordance with the requirements of 40 CFR, Parts 270 and 124 (EPA
permit); or
(ii) a permit (or
interim status) from a state authorized in accordance with 40 CFR, Part 271;
and
(B) is authorized
under applicable state or federal law to treat, store, or dispose of that type
of hazardous waste. If a hazardous oil and gas waste is destined to a facility
in an authorized state that has not yet obtained authorization from the EPA to
regulate that particular hazardous waste, then the designated facility must be
a facility allowed by the receiving state to accept such waste and the facility
must have a permit issued by the EPA to manage that waste.
(7) Centralized Waste Collection Facility or
CWCF--A facility that meets the requirements of subsection (m)(3) of this
section.
(8) Certification--A
statement of professional opinion based upon knowledge and belief.
(9) CFR--Code of Federal
Regulations.
(10) CESQG--A
conditionally exempt small quantity generator, as described in subsection
(f)(1) of this section (relating to generator classification and accumulation
time).
(11) Commission--The
Railroad Commission of Texas or its designee.
(12) Container--Any portable device in which
material is stored, transported, treated, disposed of, or otherwise
handled.
(13) Contaminated
media--Soil, debris, residues, waste, surface waters, ground waters, or other
materials containing hazardous oil and gas waste as a result of a discharge or
clean-up of a discharge.
(14)
Department of Transportation or DOT--The United States Department of
Transportation.
(15) Designated
facility--An authorized facility that has been designated on the manifest by
the generator pursuant to the provisions of subsection (o)(1) of this section
(relating to general manifest requirements).
(16) Discharge or hazardous waste
discharge--The accidental or intentional spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring,
emitting, emptying, or dumping of hazardous waste into or on any land or
water.
(17) Disposal--The
discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any
hazardous waste into or on any land or water so that such waste or any
constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or
discharged into any waters, including ground waters.
(18) Disposal facility--A facility or part of
a facility at which hazardous waste is intentionally placed into or on any land
or water, and at which waste will remain after closure.
(19) Elementary neutralization unit--A device
consisting of a tank, tank system, container, transport vehicle, or vessel that
is used for neutralizing wastes that are hazardous wastes:
(A) only because they exhibit the
characteristic of corrosivity under the test referred to in subsection
(e)(1)(D)(ii) of this section (relating to characteristically hazardous
wastes); or
(B) they are identified
in subsection (e)(1)(D)(i) of this section (relating to listed hazardous
wastes) only because they exhibit the corrosivity characteristic.
(20) Empty container--A container
or an inner liner removed from a container that has held any hazardous waste
and that meets the requirements of
40 CFR,
§261.7<subdiv>(b)</subdiv>.
(21) Environmental Protection Agency or
EPA--The United States Environmental Protection Agency.
(22) EPA Acknowledgment of Consent--The cable
sent to the EPA from the United States Embassy in a receiving country that
acknowledges the written consent of the receiving country to accept the
hazardous waste and describes the terms and conditions of the receiving
country's consent to the shipment.
(23) EPA hazardous waste number--The number
assigned by the EPA to each hazardous waste listed in 40 CFR, Part 261, Subpart
D, and to each characteristic identified in 40 CFR, Part 261, Subpart
C.
(24) EPA identification number
or EPA ID Number--The number assigned by the EPA to each hazardous waste
generator, transporter, and treatment, storage, or disposal facility.
(25) EPA Form 8700-12--The EPA form that must
be completed and delivered to the commission in order to obtain an EPA ID
number.
(26) Executive director of
the TCEQ--The executive director of the TCEQ or the executive director's
designee.
(27) Facility--All
contiguous land, including structures, other appurtenances, and improvements on
the land, used for recycling, reclaiming, treating, storing, or disposing of
hazardous waste. A facility may consist of several treatment, storage, or
disposal operational units (e.g., one or more landfills, surface impoundments,
or combinations thereof).
(28)
Generate--To produce hazardous oil and gas waste or to engage in any activity
(such as importing) that first causes a hazardous oil and gas waste to become
subject to regulation under this section.
(29) Generation site--
(A) Excluding sites addressed in
subparagraphs (B) (relating to pipelines) and (C) (relating to gas plants) of
this paragraph, any of the following operational units that are owned or
operated by one person and other sites at which hazardous oil and gas waste is
generated or where actions first cause a hazardous oil and gas waste to become
subject to regulation, including but not limited to:
(i) all oil and gas wells that produce to one
set of storage or treatment vessels, such as a tank battery, the storage or
treatment vessels, associated flowlines, and related land surface;
(ii) an injection or disposal site, that is
not part of a generation site described in subparagraph (A)(i) of this
paragraph, its related injection or disposal wells, associated injection lines,
and related land surface;
(iii) an
offshore platform; or
(iv) any
other site, including all structures, appurtenances, or other improvements
associated with that site that are geographically contiguous, but which may be
divided by public or private right-of-way, provided the entrance and exit
between the properties is at a cross-roads intersection, and access is by
crossing as opposed to going along, the right-of-way.
(B) In the case of a pipeline system (other
than a field flowline or injection line system), an equipment station (such as
a pump station, breakout station, or compressor station) or any other location
along a pipeline (such as a drip pot, pigging station, or rupture), together
with any and all structures, other appurtenances, and improvements:
(i) that are geographically contiguous with
or are physically related to an equipment station or other location described
in this paragraph, but excluding any pipeline that connects two or more such
stations or locations;
(ii) that
are owned or operated by one person; and
(iii) at which hazardous oil and gas waste is
produced or where actions first cause a hazardous oil and gas waste to become
subject to regulation.
(C) A natural gas treatment or processing
plant or a natural gas liquids processing plant.
(30) Generator--Any person, by generation
site, whose act or process produces hazardous oil and gas waste or whose act
first causes a hazardous oil and gas waste to become subject to regulation
under this section, or such person's authorized representative.
(31) Geothermal energy and associated
resources Geothermal energy and associated resources as defined in Texas
Natural Resources Code, §
RSA
141.003<subdiv>(4)</subdiv>.
(32) Hazardous oil and gas waste--Any oil and
gas waste determined to be hazardous under the provisions of subsection (e) of
this section (relating to hazardous waste determination).
(33) Hazardous oil and gas waste
constituent--A hazardous waste constituent of hazardous oil and gas
waste.
(34) Hazardous waste--A
hazardous waste, as defined in
40 CFR,
§261.3, including a hazardous oil and
gas waste.
(35) Hazardous waste
constituent--A constituent that caused the administrator to list a hazardous
waste in 40 CFR, Part 261, Subpart D, or a constituent listed in table 1 of
40 CFR,
§261.24.
(36) International shipment--The
transportation of hazardous oil and gas waste into or out of the jurisdiction
of the United States.
(37) Land
disposal--The placement in or on the land, except as otherwise provided in 40
CFR, Part 268, including placement in a landfill, surface impoundment, waste
pile, injection well, land treatment facility, salt dome formation, salt bed
formation, or underground mine or cave, or placement in a concrete vault or
bunker intended for disposal purposes.
(38) LQG--A large quantity generator, as
described in subsection (f)(3) of this section (relating to generator
classification and accumulation time).
(39) Management--The systematic control of
the collection, source separation, storage, transportation, processing,
treatment, recovery, and disposal of hazardous waste.
(40) Manifest--The shipping document required
pursuant to the provisions of subsection (o) of this section (relating to
manifests).
(41) Manifest document
number--The 12-digit identification number assigned to a generator by the EPA,
plus a unique five-digit document number assigned to the manifest by the
generator, or preprinted on the manifest, for recording and reporting
purposes.
(42) Oil and gas
waste--Waste generated in connection with activities associated with the
exploration, development, and production of oil or gas or geothermal resources,
or the solution mining of brine. Until delegation of authority under RCRA to
the commission by EPA, the term "oil and gas waste" shall exclude hazardous
waste arising out of or incidental to activities associated with natural gas
treatment or natural gas liquids processing plants and reservoir pressure
maintenance or repressurizing plants.
(43) On-site--At the generation
site.
(44) Operator--The person
responsible for the overall operation of a facility.
(45) Owner--The person who owns a facility or
part of a facility.
(46) P-5
operator number--The number assigned by the commission to each person who
conducts any of the activities specified in §
RSA
3.1 of this title (relating to Organization
Report; Retention of Records; Notice Requirements) within the State of
Texas.
(47) Person--An individual,
firm, joint stock company, corporation, organization, government, governmental
subdivision or agency, business trust, estate, trust, partnership, association,
or any other legal entity.
(48)
Pressure maintenance plant or repressurizing plant--A plant for processing
natural gas for reinjection (for reservoir pressure maintenance or
repressurizing) in a natural gas recycling project. These terms do not include
a compressor station along a natural gas pipeline system or a pump station
along a crude oil pipeline system.
(49) Primary exporter--Any person who is
required to originate the manifest for a shipment of hazardous waste in
accordance with 40 CFR, Part 262, Subpart B, or equivalent state provision,
that identifies a treatment, storage, or disposal facility in a receiving
country as the facility to which the hazardous waste will be sent and any
intermediary arranging for the export.
(50) Receiving country--A foreign country to
which a hazardous waste is sent for the purpose of treatment, storage, or
disposal (except short-term storage incidental to transportation).
(51) Reclaim--To process to recover a usable
product or to regenerate.
(52)
Recycle--To beneficially use, reuse, or reclaim hazardous waste.
(53) Reportable quantity--The quantity of a
hazardous substance released in a 24-hour period that must be reported under
the provisions of 40 CFR, Part 117 (for spills to water) or Part 302 (any
spill).
(54) Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act or RCRA--The federal Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by
the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, as amended,
42 USC
§6901, et seq.
(55) Reuse--To employ hazardous waste as an
ingredient in an industrial process to make a product (other than recovery of
distinct components of hazardous waste as separate end products) or effective
substitution of hazardous waste for a commercial product used in a particular
function or application.
(56)
Sludge--Any solid, semi-solid, or liquid waste generated from a wastewater
treatment plant or water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control
facility, exclusive of the treated effluent from a wastewater treatment
plant.
(57) Solid waste--Any waste
identified in
40 CFR,
§261.2.
(58) Solution mined brine--Brine extracted
from a subsurface salt formation through dissolution of salt in the
formation.
(59) SQG--A small
quantity generator, as described in subsection (f)(2) of this section (relating
to generator classification and accumulation time).
(60) State--Any of the 50 states that compose
the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico,
the U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, or the Commonwealth of the
Northern Mariana Islands.
(61)
Storage--The holding of hazardous waste for a temporary period (excluding
storage at the site of generation during the applicable accumulation time
period specified in subsection (f) of this section), at the end of which the
hazardous waste is recycled, reclaimed, treated, disposed of, or stored
elsewhere.
(62) Tank--A stationary
device designed to contain an accumulation of hazardous waste that is
constructed primarily of non-earthen materials (e. g., wood, concrete, steel,
plastic) that provide structural support.
(63) Tank system--A tank and its associated
ancillary equipment and containment system.
(64) TCEQ--The Texas Commission on
Environmental Quality or its successor agencies.
(65) Totally enclosed treatment facility--A
facility for the treatment of hazardous waste that is directly connected to an
industrial production process and that is constructed and operated in a manner
that prevents the release of any hazardous waste or hazardous waste constituent
into the environment during treatment (e.g., a pipe in which waste acid is
neutralized).
(66) Transfer
facility--Any transportation-related facility including loading docks, parking
areas, storage areas, and other similar areas where shipments of hazardous
waste are held during the normal course of transportation.
(67) Transport vehicle--A motor vehicle or
rail car used for the transportation of cargo. Each cargo-carrying body
(trailer, railroad freight car, etc.) is a separate transport
vehicle.
(68) Transportation--The
movement of hazardous waste by air, rail, highway, or water.
(69) Transporter--A person engaged in the
off-site transportation of hazardous waste.
(70) Treatment--Any method, technique, or
process, including neutralization, designed to change the physical, chemical,
or biological character or composition of any hazardous waste so as to
neutralize such waste, to recover energy or material resources from the waste,
or to render such waste non-hazardous or less hazardous, safer to transport,
store, or dispose of, amenable for recovery or storage, or reduced in volume.
The term does not include any activity that might otherwise be considered
treatment that is exempt from regulation under this section (such as
neutralization of caustic or acidic fluids in an elementary neutralization
unit).
(71) TCEQ-Form 0311--The
TCEQ Uniform Hazardous Waste Manifest form. This form can be obtained from the
commission.
(72) United States--The
50 states, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the U.S.
Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and the Commonwealth of the Northern
Mariana Islands.
(73) Used Oil--Any
oil that has been refined from crude oil, or any synthetic oil, that has been
used and as a result of such use is contaminated by physical or chemical
impurities.
(74) Vessel--Every
description of watercraft used or capable of being used as a means of
transportation on the water. The term does not include a structure that is or
is designed to be, permanently affixed to one location, or a drilling or
workover vessel that is stationary or fixed for the performance of its primary
function.
(75) Waste--Any solid
waste, as that term is defined in
40 CFR,
§261.2.
(76) Wastewater treatment unit--A device
(such as a hydrostatic test water treatment unit) that:
(A) is a tank or tank system comprising part
of a wastewater treatment facility that is subject to regulation under either
§§402 or 307(b) of the Clean Water Act,
33 USC
§§1342 or
RSA
1317<subdiv>(b)</subdiv>;
and
(B) receives and treats or
stores an influent wastewater that is a hazardous waste, that generates and
accumulates a wastewater treatment sludge that is a hazardous waste, or treats
or stores a wastewater treatment sludge that is a hazardous waste.
(77) Water (bulk shipment)--The
bulk transportation of hazardous waste that is loaded or carried on board a
vessel without containers or labels.