Georgia County Government - March 2008 - (Page 29)

manner that will adequately protect human health and the environment. New TSDFs must receive a permit before construction may begin. All TSDFs must comply w it h specif ic design and operating standards for t hei r ha z a rdous waste t reat ment, storage and disposa l units. These standards are especially important for disposal units, which must ensure that disposed waste will not escape into soil or ground water. Disposal Unit Standards • Ban liquids from landfills. • Ban underground injection of hazardous waste within a quarter mile of a drinking water well. • Require structural and design conditions, such as double liners, leachate collection systems and groundwater monitoring. • Limit facility sitings in unstable hydrogeologic areas. (USEPA 1997) G enerators must send t hei r waste of f-site for proper disposa l and are required to package, mark and label their waste properly for transportation to ensure hazardous waste will not escape from containers during transpor t. This a lso helps t ra nspor ters a nd public of f icia ls, including emergency responders, to rapidly identify the hazardous waste in the event of a leak or spill. Every facility that handles hazardous waste must obtain an identification number. Large and small quantity generators must also prepare Uniform Hazardous Waste Manifests for each shipment of hazardous waste that identifies the type and quantity of waste and the generator, transporter, and facility to which the waste is being shipped. 6 LDR program allows hazardous waste to be stored for up to one year to allow the facility to accumulate enough waste to permit proper recovery, treatment, or disposal. If, for some reason, a facility needs to store hazardous waste for a period longer than one year, it may do so without notifying USEPA. However, in the event of an enforcement action, the burden of proof to justify that such storage was necessary lies with the storage facility.9 Generation of Hazardous Waste Generators of hazardous wastes, i nclud i ng loc a l gover n ments, a re responsible for determining whether t heir waste is hazardous and accounting for the final disposal of their waste (1). Facilities that generate more than 1,000 kilograms per month of any hazardous waste or more than one kilogram of any “acute” hazardous waste (e.g., arsenic trioxide, or copper cyanides), are considered to be large quantity generators, and are subject to a l l RCR A requirements. As of 1984, facilities that generate between 100 and 1,000 kilograms per month of hazardous waste are small quantity generators, and are subject to only some of t he RCR A requirements. Conditionally exempt small quantity generators are facilities that generate under 100 kilograms of hazardous waste per month, and are exempt from almost all RCRA requirements. 5 Treatment of Hazardous Waste Treatment facilities receive waste f rom generators a nd use va rious methods to alter the composition of the hazardous waste in order to allow the waste to be recovered and reused, or f ur t her stored or d isposed of safely. Under RCRA’s Land Disposal Re st r ic t ion (L DR) prog r a m b , a l l hazardous waste that is destined for land disposal must be treated so the concentrations of hazardous constituents falls below a certain level established for each waste. Land disposal is defined as placement of hazardous waste into la nd f i l ls, su r face i mpou nd ments, waste pi les, inject ion wel ls, la nd treatment facilities, salt domes or salt bed formations, underground mines or caves, and concrete vaults or bunkers.7 Local governments that own or operate a landfill that takes any solid waste that was collected or disposed of with hazardous waste, must be treated as a hazardous waste disposal facility, subject to all of the RCRA hazardous waste treatment, storage and disposal facility requirements. 8 Storage and Disposal of Hazardous Waste Storage facilities hold hazardous waste temporarily until it can be properly treated or discarded. Hazardous waste cannot be stored indefinitely in lieu of prompt treatment. Generally, the Georgia Hazardous Waste Management Efforts As the federal government moved to place more stringent requirements on t he management of hazardous waste, states followed suit. Because of changing requirements, businesses faced uncertainty with disposing of the hazardous wastes they generated and increasing costs for meeting the new requirements. Since the programs were not f u lly in place, problems emerged. Three major controversies over hazardous waste management appeared in Georgia in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Early Hazardous Waste Controversies in Georgia On Feb. 17, 1978, Gordon Service Company, Inc. was issued a permit by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) to operate an industrial waste disposal site in Wilkinson County. This permit was issued under the authority of the 1972 State Solid Waste Management Act. Since industries were scrambling to find sites to dispose of t heir waste, hazardous waste was soon shipped to the site from as far away as Ohio and Kansas. All of this occurred well before the passage of state hazardous waste legislation and before any federal regulations on hazardous waste were proposed. Local opposition to the site increased rapidly. Residents of Wilkinson County maintained an observation post at the entrance to the site around the clock for two months (4). On Aug. 17, 1978, as a result of the concerns expressed by local citizens, the director of the Georgia Environmental HAZARDOUS WASTE continued on page 30 MARCH 2008 www.accg.org 29 http://www.accg.org

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Georgia County Government - March 2008

Georgia County Government - March 2008 Contents President's Message County Matters Guest Editorial: Our Future Depends On Statesmanship Bryan County in Step With State Coastal Plan Solid Waste Management in Georgia Hazardous Waste Management in Georgia Extension News: Georgians Growing Older, Fatter County Parade Index of Advertisers

Georgia County Government - March 2008

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