South Carolina Code of Regulations › Chapter 61 - DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL › Subchapter 61-105 - Infectious Waste Management Regulations › Section 61-105.D - Definitions

Current through Register Vol. 48, No. 6, June 28, 2024
(1) Definitions
			 carry common dictionary meanings unless otherwise specified. When used in this
			 regulation the following words have the meaning given below:
(a) "Act" means the S. C. Infectious Waste
			 Management Act, Act Number 134 of 1989, Chapter 93 of Title 44 of the Code of
			 Laws of 1976, as amended.
(b)
			 "Board" means the South Carolina Board of Health and Environmental Control
			 which is charged with the responsibility for implementation of the Infectious
			 Waste Management Act.
(c)
			 "Certification" means a statement of professional opinion based upon knowledge
			 and belief.
(d) "CFR" means the
			 Code of Federal Regulations.
(e)
			 "Closure" means the point in time at which facility owners or operators
			 discontinue operation by ceasing to accept, treat, store, or dispose of
			 infectious waste.
(f)
			 "Commissioner" means the Commissioner of the Department or his authorized
			 agent.
(g) "Container" means any
			 portable device in which a material is stored, transported, treated, disposed
			 of, or otherwise managed.
(h)
			 "Containment" means the packaging of infectious waste or the containers in
			 which infectious waste is placed.
(i) "Contingency Plan" means a document
			 setting out an organized, planned and coordinated course of action to be
			 followed in case of a fire, explosion, or release of infectious waste or
			 infectious waste constituents , or interruption of normal procedures of
			 infectious waste management.
(j)
			 "Department" means the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental
			 Control, including personnel of the Department authorized by the Board to act
			 on behalf of the Department or Board.
(k) "Destination facility" means an
			 infectious waste treatment facility which has received a permit from the
			 Department in accordance with this regulation or an appropriate out-of-state
			 facility and which is the facility designated by the generator to which waste
			 is to be transported.
(l)
			 "Discharge" or "infectious waste discharge" means the accidental or intentional
			 spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, or dumping of
			 infectious waste into or onto any land or waters of the State, including
			 groundwater.
(m) "Dispose" means to
			 discharge, deposit, inject, dump, spill, leak, or place any waste into or on
			 any land or water, including groundwater, so that the substance may enter the
			 environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters, including
			 groundwater.
(n) "EPA" means the U.
			 S. Environmental Protection Agency.
(o) "EPA identification number" means the EPA
			 assigned Medical Waste Identification Number.
(p) "Existing facility" means a facility
			 which was in operation under permits issued by the Department on June 8,
			 1989.
(q) "Expand" means an
			 increase in the capacity of the facility or an increase in the quantity of
			 infectious waste received by a facility that exceeds a permit
			 condition.
(r) "Facility" means a
			 location or site within which infectious waste is treated, stored, and/or
			 disposed of.
(s) "Final closure"
			 means the closure of all infectious waste management units at the facility in
			 accordance with all applicable closure requirements so that infectious waste
			 management activities are no longer conducted at the facility.
(t) "Free liquids" means liquids which
			 separate readily from the portion of a waste under ambient temperature and
			 pressure.
(u) "Generator" means the
			 person producing infectious waste except waste produced in a private
			 residence.
(v) "Generator facility"
			 means a facility that treats infectious waste that is owned or operated by a
			 combination or association of generators, a nonprofit professional association
			 representing generators or a nonprofit corporation controlled by generators,
			 nonprofit foundation of hospitals or nonprofit corporations wholly owned by
			 hospitals, if the waste is generated in this State and treatment is provided on
			 a nonprofit basis.
(w) "Generator
			 Registration Status" means classification of a facility that generates
			 regulated infectious waste, based on the largest amount documented by weight in
			 any one calendar month of the last 12 (twelve) consecutive calendar
			 months.
(x) "Hazardous waste" means
			 a Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous waste as defined in
			 R.61-79.261.3 of the S. C. Hazardous Waste Management Regulations.
(y) "Infectious waste" or "waste" means a
			 material as defined in Section E of this regulation.
(z) "Infectious waste management" means the
			 systematic control of the collection, source separation, storage,
			 transportation, treatment, and disposal of infectious waste.
(aa) "Intermediate handling facility" means
			 any transportation related facility including loading docks, parking areas,
			 storage areas and other similar areas where shipments of infectious waste are
			 held and/or handled for storage during the normal course of transportation and
			 may be off loaded and on loaded.
(bb) "Manifest" means the shipping document
			 authorized and signed by the generator which contains the information required
			 by this regulation.
(cc) "Offsite"
			 means not onsite.
(dd) "Onsite"
			 means the same or geographically contiguous property which may be divided by
			 public or private right-of-way provided the entrance and exit between the
			 properties is at a crossroads intersection and access is by crossing as opposed
			 to going along the right-of-way.
(ee) "Person" means an individual,
			 partnership, co-partnership, cooperative, firm, company, public or private
			 corporation, political subdivision, agency of this State, county, or local
			 government, trust, estate, joint structure company, or any other legal entity
			 or its legal representative, agent, or assigns.
(ff) "Products of conception" means fetal
			 tissues and embryonic tissues resulting from implantation in the
			 uterus.
(gg) "Pump Event" means any
			 action where treatment residue is removed from a tank holding treatment
			 residue.
(hh) "Radioactive
			 material" means any and all equipment or materials which are radioactive or
			 have radioactive contamination and which are required pursuant to any governing
			 laws, regulations or licenses to be disposed of or stored as radioactive
			 material.
(ii) "Release" means to
			 set free from restraint or confinement.
(jj) "Secured area" means an area which is
			 fenced with a locking gate or which is regularly patrolled by security
			 personnel which prevents access by the general public. An area which has
			 controlled access and barriers to prevent exposure of the general
			 public.
(kk) "Site" means
			 contiguous land, structures, and other appurtenances and improvements on the
			 land used for generating, treating, storing, transferring or disposing of
			 regulated infectious waste with the same ownership.
(ll) "Small quantity generator" means any
			 in-state generator that produces less than fifty (50) pounds of infectious
			 waste per calendar month.
(mm)
			 "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 agriculture
			 operations, and from community activities. This term 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 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.
(nn) "State" means
			 the State of South Carolina.
(oo)
			 "Storage" means the actual or intended holding of infectious wastes, either on
			 a temporary basis or for a period of time, in a manner as not to constitute
			 disposing of the wastes.
(pp)
			 "Supersaturated" means the condition when any absorbent material contains
			 enough fluid so that it freely drips that fluid or if lightly squeezed, that
			 fluid would drip from it.
(qq)
			 "Transfer facility" means any transportation related facility where shipments
			 of infectious waste are held during the normal course of transportation, but
			 are not off loaded or on loaded into fixed storage areas.
(rr) "Transport" means the movement of
			 infectious waste from the generation site to a treatment facility or site for
			 intermediate storage and/or disposal.
(ss) "Transporter" means a person engaged in
			 the offsite transportation of infectious waste by air, rail, highway, or
			 water.
(tt) "Transport vehicle"
			 means a method used for the transportation of cargo by any mode. Each
			 cargo-carrying body (trailer, railroad freight car, etc.) is a separate
			 transport vehicle.
(uu) "Treatment"
			 means a method, technique, or process designed to change the physical,
			 chemical, or biological character or composition of infectious waste so as to
			 sufficiently reduce or eliminate the infectious nature of the waste.
(vv) "Treatment facility" means a facility
			 which treats infectious waste to sufficiently reduce or eliminate the
			 infectious nature of the waste.
(ww) "Treatment residue" means the solid or
			 liquid part that remains after infectious waste has been treated to
			 sufficiently reduce or eliminate the infectious nature of the waste.
(xx) "Universal biohazard symbol" means the
			 symbol design that conforms to the design shown in the Federal Occupational
			 Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) Standards .