Senate Bill No. 28
(By Senators Scott, Minear, Buckalew and Dugan)
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[Introduced January 11, 1996; referred to the Committee
on Natural Resources.]
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A BILL to amend and reenact section twenty, article fifteen,
chapter twenty-two of the code of West Virginia, one
thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, mandating the
adoption of the federal sewage sludge regulations as the
standard for the concentration of pollutants in the soil
resulting from land application of sewage sludge.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That section twenty, article fifteen, chapter twenty-two of
the code of West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one,
as amended, be amended and reenacted to read as follows:
ARTICLE 15. SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT ACT.
§22-15-20. Sewage sludge management.
(a) The division shall develop and implement a comprehensive program for the regulation and management of sewage sludge. The
division is authorized to require permits for all facilities and
activities which generate, process or dispose of sewage sludge by
whatever means, including, but not limited to, land application,
composting, mixed waste composting, incineration or any other
method of handling sewage sludge within the state.
(b) The director shall promulgate rules necessary for the
efficient and orderly regulation of sewage sludge no later than
ninety days after the effective date of this article. The
Legislature finds and declares that conditions warranting a rule
to be promulgated as an emergency rule do exist and that the
promulgation of the initial rule required by this section should
be accorded emergency status. All rules, whether emergency or
not, promulgated pursuant to this section shall assure, at a
minimum, the following:
(1) That entities either producing sewage sludge within the
state or importing sewage sludge into the state are required to
report to the division the following:
(i) The specific source of the sewage sludge;
(ii) The amount of sewage sludge actually generated or
imported;
(iii) The content of heavy metals, pathogens, toxins or
vectors present in the sewage sludge; and
(iv) Each location that the sewage sludge is stored, land
applied or otherwise disposed of; the amount so stored, land
applied or otherwise disposed of; and the capacity of that
location to accept sewage sludge;
(2) That the division engage in reasonable and periodic
monitoring of all sewage sludge related activities and to monitor
data supplied by sewage sludge producers or importers to ensure
compliance with state and federal regulations;
(3) That representatives of the division have the ability to
enter onto any land application site for the purposes of
inspecting and analyzing the effects of sewage sludge application
on that site;
(4) That no permit for the processing or disposal of sewage
sludge will be issued until there is an accurate finding that it
has been adequately tested and shown not to contain heavy metals,
pathogens, toxins or vectors in excess of regulatory standards;
(5) That the director may require a surety bond, deposit or
similar instrument in an amount sufficient to cover the costs of
future environmental remediation from producers and importers of sewage sludge;
(6) That no person or entity be allowed to apply sewage
sludge to land in a manner that will result in exceeding the
maximum soil concentration for all pollutants, including, but not
limited to, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, mercury,
molybdenum, nickel, selenium and zinc the standards and criteria
for the land application of sewage sludge in West Virginia shall
be as provided in Part 503 of Title 40 of the code of federal
regulations, 40 CFR 503, Subparts (B) and (D) in effect on the
first day of January, one thousand nine hundred ninety-six, and
no rule promulgated under subsection (b) of this section may be
in conflict therewith;
(7) That no land, except a solid waste facility, be allowed
to accept or store so much sewage sludge as to exceed the
agronomic rate or a rate of fifteen dry tons per acre per year,
whichever is less: Provided, That up to twenty-five dry tons per
acre per year may be applied in the reclamation of surface mine
land;
(8) That information relating to the disposal of sewage
sludge is available to affected communities;
(9) That all sewage sludge processing facilities contain sufficient design specifications to protect ground and surface
waters;
(10) That regulation of composting facilities varies
according to types and quantities of materials handled;
(11) That only living or dead plant tissues are used as
bulking agents in sewage sludge processing facilities; and
(12) That a fee, to be paid by the producer or importer, be
levied and imposed on the land application of sewage sludge, to
be collected at a per ton rate, sufficient to cover the costs of
the sewage sludge management program. Fees collected pursuant
to the terms of this subsection shall be deposited in the special
revenue fund designated the "water quality management fund"
established under the provisions of section ten, article eleven
of this chapter. The fee schedule shall vary according to the
volume of materials handled and the contaminant level of the
sewage sludge and shall be subject to the provisions of article
three, chapter twenty-nine-a of this code.
(c) For those publicly owned treatment works (POTW) which
produce sewage sludge and are regulated by the division pursuant
to an NPDES permit required under article eleven of this chapter,
a sewage sludge processing permit shall be a part of the existing water pollution control permit and shall include a sewage sludge
management plan approved by the director.
(d) On and after the tenth day of April, one thousand nine
hundred ninety-three, any facility seeking to land apply,
compost, incinerate or recycle sewage sludge shall first apply
for and obtain a permit from the division. No such permit may be
issued until the rule provided for in subsection (b) of this
section is effective.
(e) All sewage sludge placed in, or upon, or used by a solid
waste facility or processed or handled, pursuant to a permit
issued by the division, shall be subject to the same tipping and
other fees levied by this chapter on the disposal of solid waste
and shall be included in said facility's total tonnage, subject
to the limitations established in this article and the provisions
of article four, chapter twenty-two-c: Provided, That no land
within a solid waste facility, but outside a landfill disposal
cell, be allowed to accept the permanent application of so much
sewage sludge as to exceed the agronomic rate or a rate of
fifteen dry tons per acre per year, whichever is less: Provided,
however, That no such fees, excepting assessment fees provided
for in subdivision (12), subsection (b) of this section shall be levied upon the application of sewage sludge to land outside a
solid waste facility in accordance with this section.
NOTE: The purpose of this bill is to mandate the adoption
of the federal sewage sludge regulations as the standard for the
concentration of pollutants in the soil resulting from land
application of sewage sludge.
Strike-throughs indicate language that would be stricken
from the present law, and underscoring indicates new language
that would be added.