Iowa Code § 455B.304 — IA Code / Title XI / Chapter 455B / Section 455B.304
Rules established.
Status: in_force

(1) The commission shall establish rules for the proper administration of this part 1 of subchapter IV which shall reflect and accommodate as far as is reasonably possible the current and generally accepted methods and techniques for treatment and disposition of solid waste which will serve the purposes of this part, and which shall take into consideration the factors, including others which it deems proper, such as existing physical conditions, topography, soils and geology, climate, transportation, and land use, and which shall include but are not limited to rules relating to the establishment and location of sanitary disposal projects, sanitary practices, inspection of sanitary disposal projects, collection of solid waste, disposal of solid waste, pollution controls, the issuance of permits, approved methods of private disposition of solid waste, the general operation and maintenance of sanitary disposal projects, and the implementation of this part.

(2) The commission shall adopt rules that allow the use of wet or dry sludge from publicly owned treatment works for land application. A sale of wet or dry sludge for the purpose of land application shall be accompanied by a written agreement signed by both parties which contains a general analysis of the contents of the sludge. The heavy metal content of the sludge shall not exceed that allowed by rules of the commission. An owner of a publicly owned treatment works which sells wet or dry sludge is not subject to any action by the purchaser to recover damages for harm to person or property caused by sludge that is delivered pursuant to a sale unless it is a result of a violation of the written agreement or if the heavy metal content of the sludge exceeds that allowed by rules of the commission. Nothing in this section shall provide immunity to any person from action by the department pursuant to section 455B.307.

(3) The commission shall adopt rules prohibiting the disposal of uncontained liquid waste in a sanitary landfill. The rules shall prohibit land burial or disposal by land application of wet sewer sludge at a sanitary landfill.

(4) The commission shall adopt rules requiring that each sanitary landfill established pursuant to section 455B.302 and permitted pursuant to section 455B.305 install and maintain a sufficient number of groundwater monitoring wells to adequately determine the quality of the groundwater and the impact the sanitary landfill, if any, is having on the groundwater adjacent to the sanitary landfill.

(5) The commission shall adopt rules requiring a schedule of monitoring of the quality of groundwater adjacent to a sanitary landfill from the groundwater monitoring wells installed in accordance with this section during the period the sanitary landfill is in use. Schedules of monitoring may be varied in consideration of the types of sanitary disposal practices, hydrologic and geologic conditions, construction and operation characteristics, and volumes and types of wastes handled at the sanitary landfill.

(6) The commission shall, by rule, require continued monitoring of groundwater pursuant to this section for a period of thirty years after the sanitary disposal project is closed. The commission may prescribe a lesser period of monitoring duration and frequency in consideration of the potential or lack thereof for groundwater contamination from a sanitary landfill. The commission may extend the thirty-year monitoring period on a site-specific basis by adopting rules specifically addressing additional monitoring requirements for each sanitary disposal project for which the monitoring period is to be extended.

(7) The commission shall adopt rules that may require the installation of shafts to relieve the accumulation of gas in a sanitary landfill.

(8) The commission shall adopt rules which establish closure, postclosure, leachate control and treatment, and financial assurance standards and requirements and which establish minimum levels of financial responsibility for sanitary disposal projects.

(9) The commission shall adopt rules which establish the minimum distance between tiling lines and a sanitary landfill in order to assure no adverse effect on the groundwater.

(10) The commission shall adopt rules for the distribution of grants to cities, counties, central planning agencies, and public or private agencies working in cooperation with cities or counties, for the purpose of solid waste management. The rules shall base the awarding of grants on a project’s reflection of the solid waste management policy and hierarchy established in section 455B.301A, the proposed amount of local matching funds, and community need.

(11) A sanitary landfill operating with a permit shall have a trained, tested, and certified operator. The department shall adopt by rule a certification program.

(12) The commission shall adopt rules for the certification of operators of solid waste incinerators. The criteria for certification shall include, but is not limited to, an operator’s technical competency and operation and maintenance of solid waste incinerators.

(13) Notwithstanding the provisions of this chapter regarding the requirement of the equipping of a sanitary landfill with a leachate control system and the establishment and continuation of a postclosure account, the department shall adopt rules that provide for an exemption from the requirements to equip a publicly owned sanitary landfill with a leachate control system and to establish and maintain a postclosure account if the sanitary landfill operator is a public agency, if the sanitary landfill closed by July 1, 1992, and no longer accepted waste for disposal after that date, and if at the time of closure of the sanitary landfill monitoring of the groundwater does not reveal the presence of leachate. The department shall require postclosure groundwater monitoring and shall establish the requirements for the implementation of leachate collection and control in cases in which leachate is found during postclosure monitoring. The department shall provide for a closure completion period following the date of closure of a sanitary landfill. Notwithstanding the provisions of this subsection, the public agency shall retain financial responsibility for closure and postclosure requirements applicable to sanitary disposal projects.

(14) The commission shall adopt rules providing for the land application of soils resulting from the remediation of petroleum releases and the land application of certain solid wastes including industrial sludges in the state.

(15) The commission shall adopt rules which require all sanitary disposal projects in which the tonnage fee pursuant to section 455B.310 is imposed, to install scales and utilize these scales to calculate payment of the tonnage fee.

(16) The commission shall adopt rules which prohibit the land application of petroleum contaminated soils on floodplains.

(17) The commission shall adopt rules to establish a special waste authorization program. For purposes of this subsection, “special waste” means any industrial process waste, pollution control waste, or toxic waste which presents a threat to human health or the environment or a waste with inherent properties which make the disposal of the waste in a sanitary landfill difficult to manage. Special waste does not include domestic, office, commercial, medical, or industrial waste that does not require special handling or limitations on its disposal. Special waste does not include hazardous wastes which are regulated under the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, 42 U.S.C. §6921 – 6934, nor does it include hazardous waste as defined in section 455B.411, except to the extent that the commission has adopted rules allowing the disposal of certain wastes.

(18) The commission shall adopt rules for the issuance of a single general permit, after notice and opportunity for a public hearing. The single general permit shall cover numerous facilities to the extent that they are representative of a class of facilities which can be identified and conditioned by a single permit.

(19) The commission shall adopt rules for determining when the utilization of a solid by-product, including energy recovery, constitutes beneficial use rather than the disposal of solid waste. Materials approved for beneficial use at a sanitary landfill shall be exempt from the tonnage fee imposed by section 455B.310 to the extent authorized by rule or permit.

[C71, §406.5; C73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §455B.78; 82 Acts, ch 1112, §1, 2]C83, §455B.30485 Acts, ch 58, §1; 86 Acts, ch 1174, §1 – 3; 87 Acts, ch 225, §406 – 408; 89 Acts, ch 272, §29; 90 Acts, ch 1235, §16; 90 Acts, ch 1255, §27; 90 Acts, ch 1260, §25; 92 Acts, ch 1215, §5; 94 Acts, ch 1177, §2; 95 Acts, ch 61, §2; 95 Acts, ch 215, §3; 97 Acts, ch 137, §7; 98 Acts, ch 1193, §1; 2006 Acts, ch 1014, §3; 2008 Acts, ch 1118, §2, 3; 2021 Acts, ch 76, §150; 2022 Acts, ch 1013, §3