Current through Register Vol. 24-06, March 15, 2024
(1)
Applicability. These standards apply to special incinerator ash generators that
incinerate more than twelve tons of municipal solid waste per day. Existing
generators shall meet the requirements of this section within six months after
the effective date of this chapter.
(2) Management plans procedures.
(a) Before generating or managing any special
incinerator ash, any generator subject to this section shall submit a generator
management plan to the department for review and approval. The department may
publish guidelines on the form and content of management plans consistent with
this chapter. Within thirty days of receipt, the department shall determine
whether the plan is factually complete and so notify the generator.
(b) Upon receipt of a complete generator
management plan, the department shall give notice of its receipt of a proposed
management plan to the public and to interested persons for public comment for
thirty days after the date of publication.
(c) The department shall also perform the
following additional public notification requirements:
(i) Mail the notice to persons who have
expressed an interest in being notified;
(ii) Mail the notice to other state agencies
and local governments with a regulatory interest in the proposal;
(iii) The public notice shall include a
statement that any person may express their views in writing to the department
within thirty days of the last date of publication;
(iv) Any person submitting written comment or
any other person upon request, may obtain a copy of the department's final
decision;
(v) The department shall
add the name of any person, upon request, to a mailing list to receive copies
of notices for all applications within the state or within a geographical
area.
(d) The department
shall review each generator management plan to determine whether the generator
management plan complies with this chapter and
chapter
70.138 RCW, including
whether the necessary ash disposal permit has been or is likely to be
issued.
(e) Within sixty days of
receipt of a complete generator management plan, the department may approve,
approve with conditions, or reject the submitted generator management plan.
Approval may be conditioned upon additional requirements necessary to protect
employees, human health, and the environment, including special management
requirements such as waste and ash segregation, or treatment techniques such as
neutralization, detoxification, and solidification or stabilization.
(f) All generators shall comply with their
individual approved management plan. No generator may construct and operate an
incineration or energy recovery facility without an approved management
plan.
(g) Any generator operating
under an approved generator management plan shall notify the department and the
department may require resubmission of the generator management plan when there
is a proposed material change in the ash management of the special incinerator
ash collection and/or handling system.
Upon receipt of the revised generator management plan, the
department shall proceed according to subsection (2) of this section.
(3) Generator
management plan requirements. Before managing special incinerator ash, all
applicable generators shall develop generator management plans. Generator
management plans shall show how the following requirements are met:
(a) Planning requirements:
(i) All generators shall demonstrate how the
management of ash, including disposal, complies with the city and county
comprehensive solid waste management plan of
RCW
70.95.080, as applicable.
(ii) All generators shall demonstrate how ash
management areas comply with or are a part of the spill prevention
plans.
(b) Requirements
for managing solid waste to reduce ash toxicity and ash quantity. All
generators shall:
(i) Conduct annual municipal
solid waste compositional studies to identify kinds and amounts of toxic
metals, including cadmium and lead, other hazardous materials, halogenated
plastics, and other substances that contribute to the toxicity of special
incinerator ash;
(ii) Establish
policies, procedures, incentives, and treatment methods to remove toxic metals
in municipal solid waste before incineration or energy recovery;
(iii) Establish procedures to insure that
dangerous wastes are not knowingly accepted at the incineration or energy
recovery facility including developing lists of consumer or commercial items
that may or may not be acceptable for incineration;
(iv) Establish a timetable for implementing
(b)(i), (ii), and (iii) of this subsection, and a method for evaluating the
effectiveness of the program in reducing the toxicity and volume of special
incinerator ash.
(c)
Collection and handling requirements.
(i) All
incineration or energy recovery facilities must be designed and operated to
prevent fugitive dust emissions and direct exposure of the ash to the weather.
Special incinerator ash must be collected, stored, and handled in enclosed
buildings or the equivalent (e.g., covered conveyors and transfer points). This
requirement is not applicable to ferrous metal separated from bottom
ash.
(ii) Floor or surface drains
serving ash collection, storage, and handling areas must not be connected to
uncontaminated storm water runoff drains. Spills and process waters must be
handled in one or more of the following methods:
(A) Reused in the process;
(B) Discharged to surface waters under a
National Pollution Discharge Elimination System Permit issued under chapter
173-220 WAC;
(C) Discharged to
surface water, groundwater, or a municipal sewer system under a state discharge
permit issued under chapter 173-216 WAC;
(D) Injected through wells under an
underground injection control permit issued under chapter 173-218 WAC;
or
(E) Managed in another method
approved by the department.
(iii) All incineration and energy recovery
facilities must be designed and operated to comply with chapter 296-62 WAC, the
general occupational health standards.
(iv) The percentage of carbon in bottom ash
may not exceed six percent by weight, dry, as determined by ASTM D3178-84 or
other methods approved by the department. Alternative carbon content limits may
be established by the department, upon a demonstration by the owner or operator
that methane generation and settlement does not exceed levels associated with
bottom ash meeting the six percent carbon standard. Representative samples must
be taken according to the guidelines established by the department.
(d) Storage requirements.
(i) Ash must be stored in totally-enclosed
buildings, in leak-proof containers, or in tanks;
(ii) Storage may not exceed forty-five days
from the date of generation of the ash, and/or the storage amount may not
exceed thirty days of daily production;
(iii) Storage must be in an area served by
the floor and surface drain requirements in (c)(ii) of this
subsection.
(e) Ash from
an incineration or energy recovery facility must be transported to an offsite
or on-site disposal facility in covered and sealed vehicles or containers to
avoid wind dispersal or fluid leakage. Owners and operators shall prevent ash
trackout onto the site and the public right of way by employing tire washing or
any equivalent means. Contaminated washwaters must be disposed of according to
(c)(ii) of this subsection.
(f)
Waste management accountability. All owners or operators of incineration or
energy recovery facilities shall:
(i)
Establish procedures acceptable to the department for tracking movements of
special incinerator ash from the point of generation and/or handling to the
site of final deposit or disposal. The tracking method may include inventory
control and tracking systems, scale, ticket, and receipt tracking, gate logs,
operating logs, or material balances;
(ii) File a report with the department if the
owner or operator has not confirmed that an ash waste has been received at the
intended destination within forty-five days of the date the waste was accepted
by the transporter. The report must include:
(A) A legible copy of the shipping paper or
manifest for which the owner or operator does not have confirmation of
delivery; and
(B) A cover letter
signed by the generator or his representative explaining the efforts taken to
locate the waste and the results of these efforts.
(g) Other state and local
requirements. All generators shall comply with all federal, state, and local
environmental and industrial hygiene right-to-know laws and rules, including
chapter 197-11 WAC, the State Environmental Policy Act rules; chapter 173-304
WAC, the Minimum functional standards for solid waste handling; and chapter
173-434 WAC, the air emission rules for incinerators.
(4) Annual report requirements. All
generators shall submit annual reports to the department by March 1 of the
following calendar year on forms specified by the department specifying:
(a) Annual amounts, in tons, of:
(i) Municipal solid waste
incinerated;
(ii) Bottom ash
generated; and
(iii)
Flyash/scrubber residue generated.
(b) Disposal sites for all special
incinerator ash. For multiple disposal sites, the amounts of disposal that are
occurring in tons per year;
(c)
Permittee's name, address, telephone number, date of permit issuance and
expiration date for the disposal sites listed in (b) of this
subsection;
(d) Designation test
results. The results of testing bottom ash and flyash/scrubber residues
separately and combined flyash and bottom ash on representative samples taken
each quarter of the year and subjected to the criteria of WAC
173-303-100. Results of testing
bottom ash quarterly for carbon residue according to subsection (3)(c)(iv) of
this section must be included unless otherwise approved by the department.
After one year of testing, the department may reduce this requirement if a less
frequent program can provide adequate data to determine the effectiveness of an
ash toxicity reduction program. Representative sampling methods shall follow
guidelines specified by the department;
(e) Toxics separation test results. The
results of testing bottom ash and flyash separately for toxic metals from
samples taken in (d) of this subsection must be included, in order to judge the
progress made in toxic metals separation and reduction;
(f) Special test results. The results of
testing bottom ash and flyash separately for dioxins and dibenzofurans on a
composite sample made from the eight quarterly samples taken in (d) of this
subsection must be included; and
(g) Ambient lead and cadmium samples taken in
the air and soil respectively at the property boundary must be included to
demonstrate compliance with the performance standard of WAC
173-306-440(2)(b) and
(c). The samples must be taken annually for
cadmium and quarterly for lead, unless otherwise approved by the
department.
Statutory Authority:
Chapter
70.138 RCW. 00-19-018
(Order 00-17), § 173-306-200, filed 9/8/00, effective 10/9/00; 90-10-047,
§ 173-306-200, filed 4/30/90, effective
5/31/90.