Washington Administrative Code › Title 173 - Ecology, Department of (See also Titles 197, 317, 372, and 508) › Chapter 173-303 - Dangerous waste regulations › Section 173-303-235 - Alternative requirements for eligible academic laboratories

Current through Register Vol. 24-14, July 15, 2024
(1) The following
			 definitions apply to this section:
(a)
			 "College/university" means a private or public, postsecondary, degree-granting,
			 academic institution, that is accredited by an accrediting agency listed
			 annually by the U.S. Department of Education.
(b) "Eligible academic entity" means a
			 college or university, or a nonprofit research institute that is owned by or
			 has a formal written affiliation agreement with a college or university, or a
			 teaching hospital that is owned by or has a formal written affiliation
			 agreement with a college or university.
(c) "Formal written affiliation agreement"
			 for a nonprofit research institute means a written document that establishes a
			 relationship between institutions for the purposes of research and/or education
			 and is signed by authorized representatives from each institution. A
			 relationship on a project-by-project or grant-by-grant basis is not considered
			 a formal written affiliation agreement. A formal written affiliation agreement
			 for a teaching hospital means a master affiliation agreement and program letter
			 of agreement, as defined by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical
			 Education, with an accredited medical program or medical school.
(d) "Laboratory" means an area owned by an
			 eligible academic entity where relatively small quantities of chemicals and
			 other substances are used on a nonproduction basis for teaching or research (or
			 diagnostic purposes at a teaching hospital) and are stored and used in
			 containers that are easily manipulated by one person. Photo laboratories, art
			 studios, and field laboratories are considered laboratories. Areas such as
			 chemical stockrooms and preparatory laboratories that provide a support
			 function to teaching or research laboratories (or diagnostic laboratories at
			 teaching hospitals) are also considered laboratories.
(e) "Laboratory clean-out" means an
			 evaluation of the inventory of chemicals and other materials in a laboratory
			 that are no longer needed or that have expired and the subsequent removal of
			 those chemicals or other unwanted materials from the laboratory. A clean-out
			 may occur for several reasons. It may be on a routine basis (e.g., at the end
			 of a semester or academic year) or as a result of a renovation, relocation, or
			 change in laboratory supervisor/occupant. A regularly scheduled removal of
			 unwanted material as required by subsection (9) of this section does not
			 qualify as a laboratory clean-out.
(f) "Laboratory worker" means a person who
			 handles chemicals and/or unwanted material in a laboratory and may include, but
			 is not limited to, faculty, staff, postdoctoral fellows, interns, researchers,
			 technicians, supervisors/managers, and principal investigators. A person does
			 not need to be paid or otherwise compensated for their work in the laboratory
			 to be considered a laboratory worker. Undergraduate and graduate students in a
			 supervised classroom setting are not laboratory workers.
(g) "Nonprofit research institute" means an
			 organization that conducts research as its primary function and files as a
			 nonprofit organization under the tax code of
			 26 U.S.C.
			 501(c)(3).
(h) "Reactive acutely hazardous unwanted
			 material" means an unwanted material that is one of the acutely hazardous
			 commercial chemical products listed in WAC
			 173-303-9903
			 for reactivity.
(i) "Teaching
			 hospital" means a hospital that trains students to become physicians, nurses,
			 or other health or laboratory personnel.
(j) "Trained professional" means a person who
			 has completed the applicable dangerous waste training requirements of WAC
			 173-303-200(1)(e)(i) for large quantity generators, or is knowledgeable about normal operations and
			 emergencies in accordance with WAC 173-303-172(12)(c) for generators regulated
			 under WAC 173-303-172 and small quantity generators. A trained professional may
			 be an employee of the eligible academic entity or may be a contractor or vendor
			 who meets the requisite training requirements.
(k) "Unwanted material" means any chemical,
			 mixtures of chemicals, products of experiments or other material from a
			 laboratory that is no longer needed, wanted or usable in the laboratory and
			 that is destined for dangerous waste determination by a trained professional.
			 Unwanted materials include reactive acutely hazardous unwanted materials and
			 materials that may eventually be determined not to be solid waste pursuant to
			 WAC
			 173-303-016,
			 or a dangerous waste pursuant to WAC
			 173-303-070.
			 If an eligible academic entity elects to use another equally effective term in
			 lieu of unwanted material, as allowed by subsection (7)(a)(i) (A) of this
			 section, the equally effective term has the same meaning and is subject to the
			 same requirements as unwanted material under this section.
(l) "Working container" means a small
			 container (i.e., two gallons or less) that is in use at a laboratory bench,
			 hood, or other work station, to collect unwanted material from a laboratory
			 experiment or procedure.