S.C. Code Regs. § 61-107.19.I.B

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 10, October 25, 2024

Section 61-107.19.I.B - Definitions for the Purposes of this Regulation

1. "Active life" means the period of operation beginning with the initial receipt of solid waste and ending at completion of closure activities in accordance with this regulation.

2. "Active portion" means that part of a facility that has received or is receiving wastes and that has not been closed in accordance with this regulation.

3. "Administratively complete" means a determination by the Department that all elements of an application, as specified herein, have been received to include all required signatures and tender of the application fee, where required.

4. "Airport" means public-use airport open to the public without prior permission and without restrictions within the physical capacities of available facilities.

5. "Applicant" means an individual, corporation, partnership, business association, or government entity that applies for the issuance, transfer, or modification of a permit under this regulation.

6. "Aquifer" means a geological formation, group of formations, or portion of a formation, capable of yielding significant quantities of groundwater to wells or springs.

7. "Areas susceptible to mass movement" means those areas of influence (i.e., areas characterized as having an active or substantial possibility of mass movement) where the movement of earth material at, beneath, or adjacent to the landfill, because of natural or man-induced events, results in the downslope transport of soil and rock material by means of gravitational influence. Areas of mass movement include, but are not limited to, landslides, avalanches, debris slides and flows, soil fluction, block sliding, and rock fall.

8. "Ash" means the solid residue from the incineration of solid wastes.

9. "Beneficial fill" means filling to surrounding grade, low areas or depressions in the surface of the earth to include permitted mining sites for an aesthetic benefit.

10. "Bird hazard" means an increase in the likelihood of bird/aircraft collisions that may cause damage to the aircraft or injury to its occupants.

11. "Bulk PCB Waste" means waste derived from manufactured products containing PCBs in a non-liquid state, at any concentration where the concentration at the time of designation for disposal was >50 ppm PCBs. PCB bulk product waste does not include PCBs or PCB Items regulated for disposal under 40CFR761, the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), Sections761.60(a) through (c)(a) through (c), Sec.761.61, Sec. 761.63, or Sec.761.64. PCB bulk product waste includes, but is not limited to:

(a) Non-liquid bulk wastes or debris from the demolition of buildings and other man-made structures manufactured, coated, or serviced with PCBs. PCB bulk product waste does not include debris from the demolition of buildings or other man-made structures that is contaminated by spills from regulated PCBs which have not been disposed of, decontaminated, or otherwise cleaned up in accordance with TSCA requirements, Sec.761.61.

(b) PCB-containing wastes from the shredding of automobiles, household appliances, or industrial appliances.

(c) Plastics (such as plastic insulation from wire or cable; radio, television and computer casings; vehicle parts; or furniture laminates); preformed or molded rubber parts and components; applied dried paints, varnishes, waxes or other similar coatings or sealants; caulking; adhesives; paper; Galbestos; sound deadening or other types of insulation; and felt or fabric products such as gaskets.

(d) Fluorescent light ballasts containing PCBs in the potting material.

12. "Closure" means the discontinuance of operation by ceasing to accept, treat, store, or dispose of solid waste in a manner which minimizes the need for further maintenance and protects human health and the environment.

13. "Commercial solid waste" means all types of solid waste generated by stores, offices, restaurants, warehouses, and other nonmanufacturing activities, excluding residential and industrial wastes.

14. "Construction" means any physical modification to the site at which a potential or proposed solid waste management facility is to be located including, but not limited to, site preparation.

15. "Contingency plan" means a document acceptable to the Department setting out an organized, planned, and coordinated course of action to be followed at or by the facility in case of a fire, explosion, or other incident that could threaten human health and safety or the environment.

16. "Cover" means soil or other suitable material, or both, acceptable to the Department that is used to cover compacted solid waste in a land disposal site.

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

18. "Disclosure statement" means a sworn statement or affirmation, the form and content of which shall be determined by the department and as required by SC Code Section 44-96-300.

19. "Displacement" means the relative movement of any two (2) sides of a fault measured in any direction.

20. "Disposal" means the discharge, deposition, injection, dumping, spilling, or placing of any solid waste into or on any land or water, so that the substance or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters, including groundwater.

21. "Existing landfill" means any landfill that is permitted to receive solid waste as of the effective date of this regulation.

22. "Expand" or "Expansion" means, for the purposes of this regulation, any increase in the permitted capacity of a solid waste disposal facility, or any increase in the total volume at a solid waste disposal facility.

23. "Facility" means all contiguous land, structures, other appurtenances and improvements on the land used for treating, storing, or disposing of solid waste. A facility may consist of several treatment, storage, or disposal operational units, including, but not limited to, one or more landfills, surface impoundments, or combination thereof.

24. "Fault" means a fracture or a zone of fractures in any material along which strata on one side have been displaced with respect to that on the other side.

25. "Financial assurance mechanism" means a mechanism designed to demonstrate that sufficient funds will be available to meet specific environmental protection needs of solid waste management facilities. Available financial responsibility mechanisms include, but are not limited to insurance, trust funds, surety bonds, letters of credit, certificates of deposit, and financial tests as determined by the Department by regulation.

26. "Flood plain" means the lowland and relatively flat areas adjoining inland and coastal areas of the mainland and off-shore islands including, at a minimum, areas subject to a one percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year.

27. "100-year flood" means a flood that has a 1-percent or greater chance of recurring in any given year or a flood of a magnitude equaled or exceeded once in 100 years on the average over a significantly long period.

28. "Footprint" means the outer most edges of the waste disposal area.

29. "Gas condensate" means the liquid generated as a result of gas recovery process(es) at the landfill.

30. "Generator" means any person, by site, whose action or process produces solid waste, or whose action first causes a solid waste to become subject to regulation.

31. "Groundwater" means water beneath the land surface in the saturated zone.

32. "Hazardous waste" has the meaning provided in Section 44-56-20 of the South Carolina Hazardous Waste Management Act.

33. "High water table" means the highest water elevations measured at the uppermost aquifer.

34. "Holocene" means the most recent epoch of the Quaternary period, extending from the end of the Pleistocene Epoch to the present.

35. "Household waste" means any solid waste (including garbage, trash, and sanitary waste in septic tanks) derived from households (including single and multiple residences, hotels and motels, bunkhouses, ranger stations, crew quarters, campgrounds, picnic grounds, and day-use recreational areas).

36. "Industrial waste" means solid waste that results from industrial processes including, but not limited to, factories and treatment plants.

37. "Karst terranes" means areas where karst topography, with its characteristic surface and subterranean features, is developed as the result of dissolution of limestone, dolomite, or other soluble rock. Characteristic physiographic features present in karst terranes include, but are not limited to, sinkholes, sinking streams, caves, large springs, and blind valleys.

38. "Landfill" means a disposal facility or part of a facility where solid waste is placed in or on land, and which is not a land treatment facility, a surface impoundment, or an injection well.

39. "Land-clearing debris" means solid waste which is generated solely from land-clearing activities, but does not include solid waste from agricultural or silvicultural operations.

40. "Lateral expansion" means a horizontal expansion of the footprint of an existing landfill.

41. "Leachate" means the liquid that has percolated through or drained from solid waste or other man-emplaced materials and that contains soluble, partially soluble, or miscible components removed from such waste.

42. "Lead-based paint" means paint containing greater than 600 parts per million (ppm) total lead by weight, calculated as lead metal in the total nonvolatile content, i.e., >0.06%; or, when measured in situ with an X-ray Fluorescence Spectrum Analyzer (XRF), paint containing >;0.7 mg/cm².

43. "Liquid waste" means any waste material that is determined to contain "free liquids" as defined by Method 9095B (Paint Filter Liquids Test), and as described in "Test Methods for Evaluating Solid Wastes, Physical/Chemical Methods" (EPA Pub. No. SW-846, as amended by EPA final updates).

44. "Lithified earth material" means all rock, including all naturally occurring and naturally formed aggregates or masses of minerals or small particles of older rock that formed by crystallization of magma or by induration of loose sediments. This term does not include man-made materials, such as fill, concrete, and asphalt, or unconsolidated earth materials, soil, or regolith lying at or near the earth's surface.

45. "Local government" means a county, any municipality located wholly or partly within the county, and any other political subdivision located wholly or partly within the county when such political subdivision provides solid waste management services.

46. "Lower explosive limit" means the lowest percent by volume of a mixture of explosive gases in air that will propagate a flame at 25 ^o C and atmospheric pressure.

47. "Maximum horizontal acceleration in lithified earth material" means the maximum expected horizontal acceleration depicted on a seismic hazard map, with a 90% or greater probability that the acceleration will not be exceeded in 250 years, or the maximum expected horizontal acceleration based on a site-specific seismic risk assessment.

48. "Modification" means changes to a solid waste landfill as follows:

a. "Minor modification" means a change that keeps the permit current with routine changes to the facility or its operations, or an administrative change; and,

b. "Major modification" means a change that substantially alters the facility or its operations, e.g., tonnage increase above 25%, any volumetric capacity increase, alternate designs that vary from the design prescribed in this regulation.

49. "Municipal solid waste" includes, but is not limited to, wastes that are durable goods, nondurable goods, containers and packaging, food scraps, and miscellaneous inorganic wastes from residential, commercial, institutional, and industrial sources including, but not limited to, appliances, automobile tires, newspapers, clothing, disposable tableware, office and classroom paper, wood pallets, and cafeteria wastes.

50. "Municipal solid waste incinerator" means any solid waste incinerator, publicly or privately owned, that receives household waste. Such incinerator may receive other types of solid waste such as commercial or industrial solid waste.

51. "On-site landfill" means landfills that accept only solid waste generated in the course of normal operations on property under the same ownership or control as the waste management facility.

52. "Open burning" means any fire or smoke-producing process which is not conducted in any boiler plant, furnace, high temperature processing unit, incinerator or flare, or in any other such equipment primarily designed for the combustion of fuel or waste material.

53. "Open dumping" means any unpermitted or unregistered solid waste disposal or land filling activity.

54. "Pay-in period" means the time frame allotted for making annual payments into a trust fund.

55. "Perennial stream" means a stream or reach of a stream that flows continuously throughout the year and whose upper surface generally stands lower than the water table in the region adjoining the stream.

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

57. "Permittee" means the person to whom the Department issued either a permit, an approval to operate under a General Permit, or a Permit-by-rule, pursuant to this regulation.

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

59. "Poor foundation conditions" means those areas where features exist which indicate that a natural or man-induced event may result in inadequate foundation support for the structural components of a landfill.

60. "Practical Quantitation Limit (PQL)" means the lowest concentration of an analyte that can be measured within specified limits of precision and accuracy during routine laboratory operating conditions.

61. "Putrescible wastes" means solid waste that contains organic matter capable of being decomposed by microorganisms and of such a character and proportion as to be capable of creating foul smelling odors and attracting or providing food for animals.

62. "Qualified professional" means a qualified South Carolina registered professional geologist or qualified South Carolina registered professional engineer. Under Part IV Section E and Part V Subpart E the qualified professional shall have sufficient training and experience in groundwater hydrology and related fields, including groundwater monitoring, contaminant fate and transport, and corrective-action.

63. "Recharge area" for a particular aquifer is defined as areas where water enters the aquifer through downward migration. Principal examples include: outcrop areas of a particular aquifer where the potentiometric head within the unit decreases with depth; and, in the subsurface, where the potentiometric head relationship and leakage factors across any confining unit allow for downward flow into other aquifer systems.

64. "Region" means a group of counties in South Carolina that is planning to or has prepared, approved, and submitted a regional Solid Waste Management Plan to the Department pursuant to S.C. Code Section 44-96-80.

65. "Regulated hazardous waste" means a solid waste that is a hazardous waste, as defined in R.61-79.261.3, Hazardous Waste Management Regulations, that is not excluded from regulation as a hazardous waste under R.61-79.261.4(b)(b), or was not generated by a conditionally exempt small quantity generator as defined in R.61-79.261.5.

66. "Regulatory threshold" means promulgated levels that can not be equaled or exceeded.

67. "Representative sample" means a sample that statistically represents the population.

68. "Responsible party" means:

a. Any officer, corporation director, or senior management official of a corporation, partnership, or business association that is an applicant;

b. A management employee of a corporation, partnership, or business association that is an applicant who has overall responsibility for operations and financial management of the facility under consideration;

c. An individual, officer, corporation director, senior management official of a corporation, partnership, or business association under contract to the applicant to operate the facility under consideration; or,

d. An individual, corporation, partnership, or business association that holds, directly or indirectly, at least five percent (5%) equity or debt interest in the applicant. If any holder of five percent or more of the equity or debt of the applicant is not a natural person, the term means any officer, corporation director, or senior management official of the equity or debt holder who is empowered to make discretionary decisions with respect to the operation and financial management of the facility under consideration.

69. "Run-off" means any rainwater, leachate, or other liquid that drains over land from any part of a facility.

70. "Run-on" means any rainwater, leachate, or other liquid that drains over land onto any part of a facility.

71. "Saturated zone" means that part of the earth's crust in which all voids are filled with water.

72. "Seismic impact zone" means an area with a 10% or greater probability that the maximum horizontal acceleration in lithified earth material, expressed as a percentage of the earth's gravitational pull (g), will exceed 0.10g in 250 years.

73. "Sludge" means any solid, semi-solid, or liquid waste generated from a municipal, commercial, or industrial wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility exclusive of the treated effluent from a wastewater treatment plant.

74. "Small business" means a commercial retail service, industry entity, or nonprofit corporation, including its affiliates, that:

a. Is, if a commercial retail service or industry service, independently owned and operated; and,

b. Employs fewer than one hundred (100) full-time employees or has gross annual sales or program service revenues of less than five million dollars.

75. "Sole source aquifer" is defined as specified in the Federal Safe Drinking Water Act.

76. "Solid waste" means any garbage, refuse, or sludge from a waste treatment facility, water supply plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural 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 that 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, as amended. Also excluded from this definition are application of fertilizer and animal manure during normal agricultural operations or refuse as defined and regulated pursuant to the South Carolina Mining Act, including processed mineral waste, which will not have a significant adverse impact on the environment.

77. "Special Wastes" means nonresidential or commercial solid wastes, other than regulated hazardous wastes, that are either difficult or dangerous to handle and require unusual management at Class Three landfills, including, but not limited to, those wastes contained in S.C. Code Section 44-96-390. (A).

78. "Special Wastes Analysis and Implementation Plan" means the procedures used to identify and manage special wastes at Class Three landfills, pursuant to SC Code Section 44-96-390.

79. "State" means the State of South Carolina.

80. "Structural components" means liners, leachate collection systems, final covers, run-on/run-off systems, and any other component used in the construction and operation of the landfill that is necessary for protection of human health and the environment.

81. "Structural fill" means landfilling for future beneficial use utilizing land-clearing debris, hardened concrete, hardened/cured asphalt, bricks, blocks, and other materials specified by the department by regulation, compacted and landfilled in a manner acceptable to the department, consistent with applicable engineering and construction standards and carried out as a part of normal activities associated with construction, demolition, and land-clearing operations; however, the materials utilized must not have been contaminated by hazardous constituents, petroleum products, or painted with lead-based paint. Structural fill may not provide a sound structural base for building purposes.

82. "Structural integrity" means the ability of a landfill to withstand physical forces exerted upon designed components, appurtenances, and containment structures (e.g., liners, dikes) of the landfill.

83. "Surface water" means lakes, bays, sounds, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, marshes, inlets, canals, the Atlantic Ocean within territorial limits, and all other bodies of surface water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal, fresh or salt, public or private. (This does not include drainage ditches, sedimentation ponds and other operational features on the site.)

84. "Unstable area" means a location that is susceptible to natural or human-induced events or forces capable of impairing the integrity of some or all of the landfill structural components responsible for preventing releases from a landfill. Unstable areas can include poor foundation conditions, areas susceptible to mass movements, and Karst terranes.

85. "Uppermost aquifer" means the geologic formation nearest the natural ground surface that is an aquifer, as well as lower aquifers that are hydraulically interconnected with this aquifer within the facility's property boundary.

86. "Vector" means a carrier that is capable of transmitting a pathogen from one organism to another including, but not limited to, flies and other insects, rodents, birds, and vermin.

87. "Vertical expansion" means an expansion of an existing solid waste landfill above previously permitted elevations for the purposes of gaining additional capacity.

88. "Washout" means the carrying away of solid waste by waters of the one-hundred year base flood.

89. "Wetlands" means those areas that are defined in 40 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Section232.2(r)(r) or State law.

90. "Yard trash" means solid waste consisting solely of vegetative matter resulting from landscaping maintenance.

S.C. Code Regs. 61-107.19.I.B