I
105TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 1199
To protect residents and localities from irresponsibly sited hazardous waste
facilities.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
MARCH 20, 1997
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.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Common Sense Haz-
ardous Waste Facilities Siting and Permitting Act of
1997’’.
SEC. 2. AMENDMENT OF SOLID WASTE DISPOSAL ACT.
(a) IN GENERAL.—Subtitle C of the Solid Waste Dis-
posal Act (42 U.S.C. 6921 and following) is amended by
adding the following new section at the end thereof:
‘‘SEC. 3024. SITING OF NEW OR EXPANDED HAZARDOUS
WASTE FACILITIES.
‘‘(a) DEFINITIONS.—For purposes of this section:
‘‘(1) APPLICATION.—The term ‘application’
means an application filed with a State or local per-
mitting authority for approval to site a new or ex-
panded hazardous waste facility.
‘‘(2) DENSELY POPULATED AREA.—The term
‘densely populated area’ means an incorporated
place or census designated place (defined by the
Census Bureau) with a population density of at least
1,500 people per square mile as determined by the
decennial census.
‘‘(3) ENVIRONMENTAL REDLINING.—The term
‘environmental redlining’ means the selection of sites
for new or expanded hazardous waste facilities based
predominantly on the income of the majority of resi-
dents of real property surrounding the new or ex-
panded hazardous waste facility site.
‘‘(4) HOST COMMUNITY.—The term ‘host com-
munity’ means the incorporated place or census des-
ignated place of a State in which a new or expanded
hazardous waste facility is proposed to be located.
‘‘(5) NEW OR EXPANDED HAZARDOUS WASTE
FACILITY.—The term ‘new or expanded hazardous
waste facility’ means a hazardous waste treatment,
storage, or disposal facility the construction or ex-
pansion of which commences after the enactment of
this section. For the purposes of this paragraph, the
term ‘commence’, when used with respect to a facil-
ity, refers to the issuance of all applicable permits
for such facility under other provisions of Federal,
State, and local law.
‘‘(6) OFFICIAL.—The term ‘official’ means the
elected executive official(s) of the host community if
it is incorporated, or the county executive official or
officials if it is a census designated place.
‘‘(7) PERSON.—The term ‘person’ means an in-
dividual, corporation, partnership, limited partner-
ship, limited liability company, or any other lawful
business entity that plans to operate a new or ex-
panded hazardous waste facility.
‘‘(8) PRIME
FARM
LAND.—The term ‘prime
farm land’ means real property on which crop yields
exceed the State’s annual average (as determined by
the United States Department of Agriculture) of
units per acre by at least 15 percent for 5 consecu-
tive or nonconsecutive years of the past 10 years.
‘‘(9) PERMITTING AUTHORITY.—The term ‘per-
mitting authority’ means the State or local authority
having jurisdiction under State or local law over the
siting and permitting of new or expanded hazardous
waste facilities.
‘‘(10) PUBLIC PLACE.—The term ‘public place’
means any structure the general public may access
at least 40 hours per week.
‘‘(11) UNITS.—The term ‘units’ means the per-
tinent crop measure used by the United States De-
partment of Agriculture for reporting services for
historical data.
‘‘(b) SITING CRITERIA.—In addition to the standards
applicable under section 3004, and under State and local
law, each State or local permitting authority shall develop,
not longer than 1 year after enactment of this Act, haz-
ardous waste facility siting criteria, which, at a minimum,
are consistent with each of the following:
‘‘(1) DEMOGRAPHIC
CRITERIA.—New or ex-
panded hazardous waste facilities shall not be lo-
cated within a 10-mile radius of densely populated
areas or within 2,600 feet of any school, church, day
care center, or other building or site at which per-
sons under the age of 18 are frequently present.
‘‘(2) 
TOPOGRAPHIC-ATMOSPHERIC-GEOLOGIC
CRITERIA.—New or expanded hazardous waste facili-
ties shall not be located on or within any of the fol-
lowing areas:
‘‘(A) On shallow aquifers or recharge areas
for shallow aquifers that are or may reasonably
be expected to be used for drinking water or
cropland irrigation.
‘‘(B) Within at least 200 feet of streams,
rivers, ponds, lakes, reservoirs, or other bodies
of water that are in existence for at least 21
consecutive days.
‘‘(C) On prime farm land.
‘‘(3) REDLINING.—The siting of new or ex-
panded hazardous waste facilities shall not be based
on environmental redlining.
‘‘(c) SITING PROCEDURES.—In addition to any pro-
cedures otherwise applicable under this Act or other appli-
cable law, each State or local permitting authority shall
develop hazardous waste facility siting procedures, which,
at a minimum, are consistent with the following:
‘‘(1) APPLICATION PROCESS.—Each application
shall contain written assurances that the following
procedures have been, or will be, carried out:
‘‘(A)(i) The person shall publish an an-
nouncement of the intent to file an application
to site a new or expanded hazardous waste fa-
cility, specifying the exact location of the pro-
posed site, in 2 newspapers of general circula-
tion 30 to 90 days before the filing of the appli-
cation.
‘‘(ii) One of the 2 newspapers of general
circulation shall be the newspaper with the larg-
est circulation of the incorporated place or cen-
sus designated place wherein the new or ex-
panded hazardous waste facility is proposed to
be sited.
‘‘(iii) The announcement of intent to file
an application to site a new or expanded haz-
ardous waste facility shall be published in a
type size not smaller than the majority of the
text type used on the front page of the news-
paper.
‘‘(B) The person shall submit to the per-
mitting authority and to the official of the host
community, a prospectus that detailed the cri-
teria for the selection of the site and the nature
of the waste management activities conducted
at the planned facility. A copy of the prospectus
shall be made available at a public place in the
host community by the official of the host com-
munity.
‘‘(C) The person shall submit to the per-
mitting authority and to the official of the host
community a detailed analysis and reporting of
each of the following:
‘‘(i) The area in which the new or ex-
panded hazardous waste facility is to be lo-
cated.
‘‘(ii) The process by which the area
was selected.
‘‘(iii) A description of the technologies
to be used at the facility.
‘‘(iv) A comprehensive treatment anal-
ysis of the hazardous waste to be managed
at the facility.
‘‘(v) The annual capacity of the new
or expanded hazardous waste facility.
‘‘(vi) The expected origin of the waste
accepted at the new or expanded hazardous
waste facility.
‘‘(vii) The quantity of waste the per-
son intends to receive.
‘‘(viii) The prospects for future expan-
sion of the hazardous waste facility.
‘‘(ix) Whether the person, its parent
company, officers, corporate principals, or
any entity owned, controlled, or operated
by the entity has any pending or unre-
solved environmental violations of this Act.
‘‘(D) The official of the host community
shall establish a host community advisory com-
mittee of individuals with representation from
opponents and supporters of the location of the
new or expanded hazardous waste facility with-
in 60 days of the filing of the application.
‘‘(E) The host community advisory com-
mittee shall conduct 1 public meeting on the
planned hazardous waste facility within 90 days
of the establishment of the host advisory com-
mittee.
‘‘(F) Upon the completion of the proce-
dures described in subparagraphs (A) through
(E), the person filing the application has re-
quested the official of the host community for
consent to site the facility in the host commu-
nity.
‘‘(2) RECOMMENDATION OF THE HOST COMMU-
NITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE.—The host community
advisory committee shall submit a nonbinding writ-
ten recommendation to the official of the host com-
munity within 30 days of the written request of the
person filing the application, which reflects the opin-
ion of the majority of the members of the host com-
munity advisory committee.
‘‘(3) CONSENT OF THE OFFICIAL OF THE HOST
COMMUNITY.—(A) The official of the host commu-
nity shall file his consent or a statement withholding
consent with the permitting authority within 10 days
of the submission of the host community advisory
committee’s recommendations.
‘‘(B) The official of the host community shall
include in his consent or statement withholding con-
sent, the criteria upon which his consent, or lack
thereof, is based.
‘‘(4) APPEALS PROCESS.—The number of ap-
peals of the permitting authority’s final ruling on
the application to site new or expanded hazardous
waste facilities shall not exceed one (1).’’.
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for
subtitle C of the Solid Waste Disposal Act is amended by
adding the following new item after the item relating to
section 3023:
‘‘Sec. 3024. Siting of new or expanded hazardous waste facilities.’’.
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