2023 Tennessee Code › Title 68 - HEALTH, SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION (§§ 68-1-NEW — 68-221-1319) › ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION (§§ 68-201-NEW — 68-221-1319) › Chapter 212 - HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT (§§ 68-212-101 — 68-212-509) › Part 1 - TENNESSEE HAZARDOUS WASTE MANAGEMENT ACT OF 1977 (§§ 68-212-101 — 68-212-121) › Section 68-212-104 - Part definitions

As used in this part, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1)
"Board" means the underground storage tanks and solid waste disposal control board as established by §
68-211-111
, unless otherwise indicated;
(2)
"Commercial facility" means any hazardous waste management facility that stores, treats or disposes of hazardous waste generated off-site. However, a facility shall not be deemed to be a commercial facility if the only hazardous waste that it receives from off-site is either:
(A)
Hazardous waste generated from material manufactured by a corporation, generated only at a site or sites owned or operated by the same manufacturing corporation, or subsidiaries of such corporation, or product distribution sites under contract to such corporation; provided, that the volume of hazardous waste received from such sites and placed in storage for more than thirty (30) days does not exceed ten percent (10%) of the permitted or interim status storage capacity at the facility; and provided further, that during no annual period may more than ten percent (10%) of the total hazardous waste treated or disposed at the facility be from such sites;
(B)
Mixed hazardous waste (hazardous waste that is also regulated as a radioactive material) that is received for storage and treatment (but not disposal or incineration) pursuant to an order, compliance plan or similar plan or agreement in which such receipt for storage and treatment is specifically approved by the commissioner or board; provided, that any such order, compliance plan or similar plan or agreement also requires that the ultimate land disposal of such mixed hazardous waste or waste from its treatment be at a commercial facility permitted under this part or a properly authorized facility in another jurisdiction; or
(C)
Hazardous wastes in the same waste codes and generated from the same industrial operations that a combustion facility was permitted to receive on July 1, 2001, notwithstanding any change of ownership of such operations since such date. The volume of such waste treated annually shall not exceed ten percent (10%) of the combustion facility's July 1, 2001, permitted treatment capacity;
(3)
"Commissioner" means the commissioner of environment and conservation, the commissioner's authorized representatives, or, in the event of the commissioner's absence or a vacancy in the office of commissioner, the deputy commissioner;
(4)
"Department" means the department of environment and conservation;
(5)
"Disposal" means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any hazardous waste into or on any land, water or air so that such hazardous waste or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters, including ground waters;
(6)
"Facility" means all contiguous land, and structures, other appurtenances and improvements on the land, used for treating, storing, or disposing of hazardous waste. A facility may consist of several treatment, storage, or disposal operational units;
(7)
"Generation" means the act or process of producing hazardous wastes;
(8)
"Hazardous secondary material" means a secondary material, such as spent material, by-product or sludge, that when discarded would be identified as hazardous waste under the rules promulgated pursuant to this part;
(9)
"Hazardous waste" means waste, or combination of wastes, which because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics may:
(A)
Cause, or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible illness or incapacitating reversible illness; or
(B)
Pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, disposed of, or otherwise managed;
(10)
"Manifest" means the form used for identifying the quantity, composition, and the origin, routing, and destination of hazardous waste during its transportation from the point of generation to the point of disposal, treatment or storage;
(11)
"Off-site" means any property that is not classified as on-site by subdivision (12);
(12)
"On-site" means on the site of generation. "On-site" further means the same or geographically contiguous property which may be divided by public or private right(s)-of-way. Noncontiguous property owned by the hazardous waste generator that is connected by a right-of-way which such hazardous waste generator controls and to which the public does not have access is also considered on-site property;
(13)
"Permit" means the whole or part of any written authorization of the commissioner pursuant to regulations to own or operate a facility for the treatment, storage, or disposal of or transportation of hazardous waste;
(14)
"Person" means an individual, trust, firm, joint stock company, corporation (including a government corporation), partnership, association, state, municipality, commission, political subdivision of a state, any interstate body, and governmental agency of this state and any department, agency, or instrumentality of the executive, legislative and judicial branches of the federal government;
(15)
"Portable commercial unit" means any commercial facility, as defined by subdivision (2), which is transportable from site to site for the purpose of storage, treatment or disposal of hazardous waste;
(16)
"State" means the state of Tennessee;
(17)
"Storage" means the containment of hazardous waste in such a manner as not to constitute disposal of such hazardous waste;
(18)
"Transporter" means any person engaged in the transportation of hazardous waste;
(19)
"Treatment" means any method, technique, or process, including neutralization, designed to change the physical, chemical or biological character or composition of any hazardous waste so as to neutralize such waste or so as to render such waste nonhazardous, safer for transport, amenable for recovery, amenable for storage, or reduced in volume. "Treatment" includes any activity or processing designed to change the physical form or chemical composition of hazardous waste so as to render it nonhazardous;
(20)
"Waste" means any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment 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, but does not include solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage, or solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or industrial discharges which are point sources subject to permits under § 402 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (
33 U.S.C. § 1342
), as amended, 92 P.L. 500, or source, special nuclear, or byproduct material as defined in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, 83 P.L. 703(
42 U.S.C. § 2011
et seq.). In addition, except to the extent inconsistent with applicable federal law, soil is not discarded material constituting waste as long as the soil is intended for use or reuse as soil; and
(21)
"Waste management" means the orderly control of storage, transportation, treatment, and disposal of hazardous waste.
Amended by 2020 Tenn. Acts, ch. 712, s 2, eff. 10/1/2020.
Acts 1977, ch. 175, § 3; 1979, ch. 410, § 2; 1980, ch. 899, § 8; 1981, ch. 174, §§ 8, 9; T.C.A., § 53-6304; Acts 1984, ch. 577, § 2; 1985, ch. 337, § 5; T.C.A., § 68-46-104; Acts 1994, ch. 890, § 1; 1995, ch. 95, § 1; 1995, ch. 547, § 1; 2001, ch. 102, § 1; 2009 , ch. 531, § 7.