Opinion ID: 2571635
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: statutory duty claim

Text: The HWMA explicitly creates a private cause of action. [4] If Hickle can establish (1) that Seneca and Milne violated the HWMA or its implementing regulations and (2) that their violations caused Hickle's injuries, then Hickle may recover his damages from Seneca and Milne. See RCW 70.105.097. Petitioners argue that they did not have a duty to dispose of their wastes in accordance with the HWMA because fruit pomace and spent DE were not specifically designated as dangerous wastes by the DOE. Their argument fails to recognize that as generators [5] of solid waste [6] they have a duty to determine whether or not their wastes are regulated by the HWMA. The regulations implementing the HWMA require any person who generates a solid waste (including recyclable materials) to follow the proscribed procedures for determining whether or not their solid waste is designated as dangerous waste. WAC 173-303-070(1)(b). [7] Designated is a term of art. The legislature defined dangerous wastes as: any discarded, useless, unwanted, or abandoned substances ... which are disposed of in such quantity or concentration as to pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health, wildlife, or the environment because such wastes or constituents or combinations of such wastes: . . . . (b) [a]re ... flammable.... RCW 70.105.010(5) (emphasis added). The DOE has promulgated a four step procedure that generators of solid wastes must follow to determine if their solid waste is a designated dangerous waste. WAC 173-303-070(3)(a)-(b). [8] The first two steps require generators of solid wastes to consult two lists and determine if their wastes are specifically listed as dangerous wastes. WAC 173-303-070(3)(a)(i), (ii). If the waste is not a specifically listed dangerous waste, then the generator must move to step three and determine if the waste exhibits any dangerous waste characteristics. WAC 173-303-070(3)(a)(iii). Finally, if the waste does not exhibit any dangerous waste characteristics, the generator must move to step four and determine if the waste meets any dangerous waste criteria. WAC 173-303-070(3)(a)(iv). Ignitability is a dangerous waste characteristic. WAC 173-303-090(5). A solid waste is ignitable if it is capable, under standard temperature and pressure, of causing fire through ... spontaneous chemical changes and, when ignited, burns so vigorously and persistently that it creates a hazard. WAC 173-303-090(5)(a)(ii). A solid waste that exhibits the characteristic of ignitability must be designated [dangerous waste].... [9] WAC 173-303-090(5)(b) (emphasis added). Hickle has presented unrebutted expert testimony establishing that the accumulation [10] of industrial quantities of fruit pomace and spent DE can spontaneously combust under standard temperature and pressure [11] due to moisture content and internal chemical changes. The wastes deposited on Whitney's lands actually combusted and burned so vigorously and persistently that the local fire district refused to be responsible for the eternally burning pulp. CP at 1064. Hickle's injuries underscore the hazard created by improperly tended industrial quantities of organic wastes. On the record before us, Seneca's and Milne's industrial quantities of organic wastes meet both the legislative and regulatory definitions of dangerous wastes. Contrary to Seneca's claims, there is evidence to support the conclusion that its wastes are designated dangerous wastes according to the specific procedures set forth in the Department of Ecology (DOE) regulations. [12] On the record before us, the wastes were unwanted substances disposed of in such quantities as to pose a potential hazard to human health due to the dangerous waste characteristic of ignitability. [13] See RCW 70.105.010(5); WAC 173-303-070(3)(a)(iii), -090(5)(a), (b). Finally, Seneca argues that the legislature and the DOE simply could not have intended that industrial quantities of organic wastes be designated as dangerous wastes. Seneca reasons that if their industrial quantities of fruit pomace and spent DE are covered by the HWMA and its implementing regulations, then a farmer's hay or corn stored in a barn would also be covered by the HWMA and its implementing regulations. We fail to see any logical or legal analogy between the petitioners' wastes and a farmer's stored crops. Even if we assume that hay and corn stored in a barn exhibit the dangerous characteristic of ignitability, stored hay and corn would not be covered by the HWMA and its implementing regulations. The HWMA regulates dangerous wastes. See RCW 70.105.007, .010(15). No persuasive argument can be made that hay and corn stored in a barn fall under the statutory definition of dangerous wastes because if hay and corn are being stored then they are not discarded, useless, unwanted, or abandoned substances... which are disposed of in such quantity or concentration as to pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health. RCW 70.105.010(5). For the foregoing reasons, we hold that the producers of industrial quantities of organic wastes, which are a potential hazard to human health when accumulated in a manner as to exhibit the dangerous characteristic of ignitability, have a duty to comply with the HWMA. [14] On remand, the trier of fact will need to determine (1) if Seneca and Milne violated the HWMA and (2) if they did violate the HWMA, whether their violations caused Hickle's injuries. We wish, however, to make it clear that nothing in this opinion implies that all wastes, organic or otherwise, are covered by the HWMA. For example, agricultural wastes that are not disposed of in such quantities as to pose a present or potential hazard to human health are not covered by the HWMA because they do not meet the statutory definition of dangerous waste. See RCW 70.105.010(5). In addition, the HWMA regulations specifically exempt certain materials from the definition of solid wastes. WAC 173-303-016(1)(b)(i), (5)(a)(ii), -017, -070(2)(b). Furthermore, the regulations specifically exclude certain categories of waste, including agricultural crops and animal manures which are returned to the soil as fertilizers. WAC 173-303-071(3)(d). [15]