I

104TH CONGRESS

2D SESSION H.R. 3780

To protect residents and localities from irresponsibly sited hazardous waste

facilities.

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

JULY 10, 1996

Mr. SOUDER introduced the following bill; which was referred to the

Committee on Commerce

A BILL

To protect residents and localities from irresponsibly sited

hazardous waste facilities.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Common Sense Haz5 ardous Waste Facilities Siting and Permitting Act of

6 1996’’.

7 SEC. 2. AMENDMENT OF SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL ACT.

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle C of the Solid Waste Dis9 posal Act (42 U.S.C. 6921 and following) is amended by

10 adding the following new section at the end thereof:
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1 ‘‘SEC. 3024. SITING OF NEW OR EXPANDED HAZARDOUS

2 WASTE FACILITIES.

3 ‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section:

4 ‘‘(1) APPLICATION.—The term ‘application’

5 means an application filed with a State or local per6 mitting authority for approval to site a new or ex7 panded hazardous waste facility.

8 ‘‘(2) DENSELY POPULATED AREA.—The term

9 ‘densely populated area’ means an incorporated

10 place or census designated place ‘‘(defined by the

11 Census Bureau) with a population density of at least

12 1,500 people per square mile as determined by the

13 decennial census.

14 ‘‘(3) ENVIRONMENTAL REDLINING.—The term

15 ‘environmental redlining’ means the selection of sites

16 for new or expanded hazardous waste facilities based

17 predominantly on the income of the majority of resi18 dents of real property surrounding the new or ex19 panded hazardous waste facility site.

20 ‘‘(4) HOST COMMUNITY.—The term ‘host com21 munity’ means the incorporated place or census des22 ignated place of a State in which a new or expanded

23 hazardous waste facility is proposed to be located.

24 ‘‘(5) NEW OR EXPANDED HAZARDOUS WASTE

25 FACILITY.—The term ‘new or expanded hazardous
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1 waste facility’ means a hazardous waste treatment,

2 storage, or disposal facility—

3 ‘‘(A) the construction of which commences

4 after the enactment of this section, or

5 ‘‘(B) the expansion of the physical capacity

6 of which commences after January 1, 2000.

7 For the purposes of this paragraph, the term ‘com8 mence’, when used with respect to a facility, refers

9 to the issuance of all applicable permits for such fa10 cility under other provisions of Federal, State, and

11 local law.

12 ‘‘(6) OFFICIAL.—The term ‘official’ means the

13 elected executive official(s) of the host community if

14 it is incorporated, or the county executive official or

15 officials if it is a census designated place.

16 ‘‘(7) PERSON.—The term ‘person’ means an in17 dividual, corporation, partnership, limited partner18 ship, limited liability company, or any other lawful

19 business entity that plans to operate a new or ex20 panded hazardous waste facility.

21 ‘‘(8) PRIME FARM LAND.—The term ‘prime

22 farm land’ means real property on which crop yields

23 exceed the State’s annual average (as determined by

24 the United States Department of Agriculture) of
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1 units per acre by at least 15 percent for 5 consecu2 tive or nonconsecutive years of the past 10 years.

3 ‘‘(9) PERMITTING AUTHORITY.—The term ‘per4 mitting authority’ means the State or local authority

5 having jurisdiction under State or local law over the

6 siting and permitting of new or expanded hazardous

7 waste facilities.

8 ‘‘(10) PUBLIC PLACE.—The term ‘public place’

9 means any structure the general public may access

10 at least 40 hours per week.

11 ‘‘(11) UNITS.—The term ‘units’ means the per12 tinent crop measure used by the United States De13 partment of Agriculture for reporting services for

14 historical data.

15 ‘‘(b) SITING CRITERIA.—In addition to the standards

16 applicable under section 3004, and under State and local

17 law, each State or local permitting authority shall develop,

18 not longer than 1 year after enactment of this Act, haz19 ardous waste facility siting criteria, which, at a minimum,

20 are consistent with each of the following:

21 ‘‘(1) DEMOGRAPHIC CRITERIA.—New or ex22 panded hazardous waste facilities shall not be lo23 cated within a 10-mile radius of densely populated

24 areas or within 2,600 feet of any school, church, day
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1 care center, or other building or site at which per2 sons under the age of 18 are frequently present.

3 ‘‘(2) TOPOGRAPHIC-ATMOSPHERIC-GEOLOGIC

4 CRITERIA.—New or expanded hazardous waste facili5 ties shall not be located on or within any of the fol6 lowing areas:

7 ‘‘(A) On shallow aquifers or recharge areas

8 for shallow aquifers that are or may reasonably

9 be expected to be used for drinking water or

10 cropland irrigation.

11 ‘‘(B) Within at least 200 feet of streams,

12 rivers, ponds, lakes, reservoirs, or other bodies

13 of water that are in existence for at least 21

14 consecutive days.

15 ‘‘(C) On prime farm land.

16 ‘‘(3) REDLINING.—The siting of new or ex17 panded hazardous waste facilities shall not be based

18 on environmental redlining.

19 ‘‘(c) SITING PROCEDURES.—In addition to any pro20 cedures otherwise applicable under this Act or other appli21 cable law, each State or local permitting authority shall

22 develop hazardous waste facility siting procedures, which,

23 at a minimum, are consistent with the following:
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1 ‘‘(1) APPLICATION PROCESS.—Each application

2 shall contain written assurances that the following

3 procedures have been, or will be, carried out:

4 ‘‘(A)(i) The person shall publish an an5 nouncement of the intent to file an application

6 to site a new or expanded hazardous waste fa7 cility, specifying the exact location of the pro8 posed site, in 2 newspapers of general circula9 tion 30 to 90 days before the filing of the appli10 cation.

11 ‘‘(ii) One of the 2 newspapers of general

12 circulation shall be the newspaper with the larg13 est circulation of the incorporated place or cen14 sus designated place wherein the new or ex15 panded hazardous waste facility is proposed to

16 be sited.

17 ‘‘(iii) The announcement of intent to file

18 an application to site a new or expanded haz19 ardous waste facility shall be published in a

20 type size not smaller than the majority of the

21 text type used on the front page of the news22 paper.

23 ‘‘(B) The person shall submit to the per24 mitting authority and to the official of the host

25 community, a prospectus that detailed the cri-
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1 teria for the selection of the site and the nature

2 of the waste management activities conducted

3 at the planned facility. A copy of the prospectus

4 shall be made available at a public place in the

5 host community by the official of the host com6 munity.

7 ‘‘(C) The person shall submit to the per8 mitting authority and to the official of the host

9 community a detailed analysis and reporting of

10 each of the following:

11 ‘‘(i) The area in which the new or ex12 panded hazardous waste facility is to be lo13 cated.

14 ‘‘(ii) The process by which the area

15 was selected.

16 ‘‘(iii) A description of the technologies

17 to be used at the facility.

18 ‘‘(iv) A comprehensive treatment anal19 ysis of the hazardous waste to be managed

20 at the facility.

21 ‘‘(v) The annual capacity of the new

22 or expanded hazardous waste facility.

23 ‘‘(vi) The expected origin of the waste

24 accepted at the new or expanded hazardous

25 waste facility.
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1 ‘‘(vii) The quantity of waste the per2 son intends to receive.

3 ‘‘(viii) The prospects for future expan4 sion of the hazardous waste facility.

5 ‘‘(ix) Whether the person, its parent

6 company, officers, corporate principals, or

7 any entity owned, controlled, or operated

8 by the entity has any pending or unre9 solved environmental violations of this Act.

10 ‘‘(D) The official of the host community

11 shall establish a host community advisory com12 mittee of individuals with representation from

13 opponents and supporters of the location of the

14 new or expanded hazardous waste facility with15 in 60 days of the filing of the application.

16 ‘‘(E) The host community advisory com17 mittee shall conduct 1 public meeting on the

18 planned hazardous waste facility within 90 days

19 of the establishment of the host advisory com20 mittee.

21 ‘‘(F) Upon the completion of the proce22 dures described in subparagraphs (A) through

23 (E), the person filing the application has re24 quested the official of the host community for
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1 consent to site the facility in the host commu2 nity.

3 ‘‘(2) RECOMMENDATION OF THE HOST COMMU4 NITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE.—The host community

5 advisory committee shall submit a nonbinding writ6 ten recommendation to the official of the host com7 munity within 30 days of the written request of the

8 person filing the application, which reflects the opin9 ion of the majority of the members of the host com10 munity advisory committee.

11 ‘‘(3) CONSENT OF THE OFFICIAL OF THE HOST

12 COMMUNITY.—(A) The official of the host commu13 nity shall file his consent or a statement withholding

14 consent with the permitting authority within 10 days

15 of the submission of the host community advisory

16 committee’s recommendations.

17 ‘‘(B) The official of the host community shall

18 include in his consent or statement withholding con19 sent, the criteria upon which his consent, or lack

20 thereof, is based.

21 ‘‘(4) APPEALS PROCESS.—The number of ap22 peals of the permitting authority’s final ruling on

23 the application to site new or expanded hazardous

24 waste facilities shall not exceed one (1).’’.
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1 (b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for

2 subtitle C of the Solid Waste Disposal Act is amended by

3 adding the following new item after the item relating to

4 section 3023:

‘‘Sec. 3024. Siting of new or expanded hazardous waste facilities.’’.

Æ