Ala. Admin. Code r. 420-3-5-.03

Current through Register Vol. 43, No. 1, October 31, 2024

Section 420-3-5-.03 - Definitions

For the purpose of these rules, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings ascribed to them in these rules and as ascribed by law unless the context of the rules indicate differently.

(1)Act -- the "Solid Wastes and Recyclable Materials Management Act," Act No. 151, Regular Session 2008 (formerly the "Solid Waste Disposal Act," Act No. 771 Regular Session, 1969, as amended by Act No. 2247 Regular Session, 1971) Code of Ala. 1975, Section 22-27-1.

(2)ADEM -- the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (the Department) as established by Code of Ala. 1975, Section 22-22A-2.

(3)Approved -- to be authorized, certified, or permitted by, or to meet the standards of, a regulatory authority.

(4)Baling -- a volume reduction technique whereby solid waste is compressed into bales.

(5)Base Flood -- a flood that has a 1 percent or greater chance of recurring in any year, or a flood of a magnitude equaled or exceeded once in 100 years on the average.

(6)Best Management Practice - an activity or action, based on a formal plan, implemented in the approved manner, and properly maintained, that protects the public's health and the environment.

(7)Board - The Alabama State Board of Health as defined by § 22-2-1, Code of Ala. 1975.

(8)Business Concern -- any corporation, association, firm, partnership, trust, joint venture, or other form of commercial organization.

(9)Certificate of Exception -- a certificate issued by the Local County Health Department to an applicant to exempt the applicant from participation in the mandatory collection program and authorizing the certificate holder to transport solid waste generated at his household to an approved solid waste handling or disposal facility.

(10)Closure -- the act of terminating all operations at a solid waste facility regulated under these rules or rendering such facility suitable for other uses, pursuant to a plan approved by the LHD.

(11)Collect -- to gather solid waste from one or more persons generating such waste.

(12)Collection Facility -- lands, buildings, and other appurtenances used to house or maintain vehicles or equipment used for the collection or transportation of solid waste.

(13)Collector -- a person who collects and transports solid waste or scrap tires, generated by others for monetary compensation or other considerations.

(14)Covenant(s) Running With the Land -- a written agreement between the property owner and another which runs with the land and which cannot be separated from the land and which is intended to bind successors in title. Such agreement is recorded in the Office of the Probate Judge or other records office.

(15)Disposal -- the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any solid waste into or on any land or water, which allows the waste or any constituent of the waste to enter the environment or to be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters, including, but not limited to, groundwater.

(16)Disposal Facility -- the location of a disposal site where any ultimate disposal of solid waste occurs.

(17)Elements -- weather conditions.

(18)Environmental Laws -- any laws or regulations which govern the management activities of solid, hazardous, infectious, liquid, or gaseous waste; protect or preserve natural resources such as air, land, water, and wildlife; designed to prevent fraud, deceit, or misrepresentation with respect to notice, reporting, monitoring, recording, licensing, approval, or pre-approval requirements; designed to protect public health or the environment; designed to prevent or abate the existence of a public or private nuisance which adversely affected public health or the environment; or designed to prevent other intentional, reckless, or negligent acts or omissions that adversely affect public health and the environment.

(19)Explosive Material or Debris -- any material whose nature or character is to violently release mechanical or chemical energy, including any residual materials or by-products of the manufacture of such material which exhibit the same nature or character.

(20)Facility (Solid Waste Facility) -- all contiguous land, structures, and other appurtenances used for the handling or disposal of solid waste.

(21)Flood Prone Area - an area that is generally subject to being flooded or ponded more than 50 times in 100 years or greater than a 50 percent chance in any year. This definition refers to an area that is subject to frequent flooding as observed, or as indicated by soil characteristics defined in the standards of the National Soil Survey Handbook, United States Department of Agriculture.

(22)Floodplain -- the lowland and relatively flat areas adjoining inland and coastal waters that are inundated by the 100-year flood, including flood prone areas of offshore islands.

(23)Garbage -- putrescible animal and vegetable waste resulting from the handling, preparation, cooking, and consumption of food, including waste from markets, storage facilities, handling and sale of produce and other food products, except materials that are serviced by garbage grinders and handled as household sewage. Also excluded are inedible animal by-products, virgin cooking grease, and waste cooking grease.

(24)Generate -- the act or process of producing solid waste. Such waste shall be considered to be generated at the point that such materials are first discarded or collected, regardless of any subsequent transportation, transfer, reclamation, or other handling.

(25)Generator -- any person who produces solid waste.

(26)Groundwater -- water below the land surface in the zone of saturation.

(27)Handling -- the systematic control of solid waste including the collection, storage, processing, or transportation of such waste.

(28)Hazardous Waste -- shall be defined in the same manner as that term is defined in the Alabama Hazardous Wastes Management and Minimization Act, Code of Ala. 1975, Section 22-30-1 and the regulations promulgated thereunder.

(29)Household -- the people in a family or other group that are living together in one house.

(30)Imported Solid Waste -- solid waste generated outside of the state of Alabama and transported into the state for handling or disposal.

(31)Infectious Waste -- shall be defined in the same manner as that term is defined in the Alabama Department of Environmental Management's Administrative Code, Division 335-13.

(32)Key Employee -- any person employed by a permittee and empowered to make operational or financial management decisions with respect to solid, hazardous, or infectious waste management operations. The term does not include employees primarily engaged in the physical or mechanical handling or disposal of these wastes.

(33)Leachate -- any liquid that drains from stockpiled waste material and may have dissolved environmentally harmful substances that may then enter the environment through surface or groundwater or soil.

(34)Local Health Department (LHD) -- a county health department.

(35)Mandatory Collection - a local solid waste collection program that is offered to every household or person within the collection jurisdiction, with the requirement that such household or person participate in the service unless otherwise excepted or excluded by the LHD.

(36)Permit -- a formal written authorization, license, or equivalent control document issued by the appropriate regulatory authority to implement the requirements of an environmental regulation.

(37)Person -- any individual, household, trust, firm, joint stock company, corporation (including a government corporation), partnership, association, state, municipality, commission, political subdivision of the state, any interstate body, or any other private or public legal entity.

(38)Processing -- the act of shredding, grinding, sorting, baling, reclaiming, recycling, or otherwise altering solid waste.

(39)Processing Facility -- any facility or site employed in the handling of solid waste prior to its arrival at an approved disposal site, including, but not limited to, tire processors, material recovery facilities and sorters, reclamation centers, shredders and grinders, and volume reducers.

(40)Protected Natural Resource -- coastal sand dune systems, coastal wetlands, significant wildlife habitats, fragile mountain areas, freshwater wetlands, great ponds or rivers, and streams or brooks as defined under Title 38, Article 5A, Section 480-A-480-S, entitled "The Protection of Natural Resources."

(41)Public Health Nuisance -- those things, conditions, and acts enumerated in the Code of Ala. 1975, Section 22-10-1.

(42)Putrescible -- solid waste which is readily decomposed by micro-organisms producing a malodor attracting potential disease vectors which cause a public health nuisance.

(43)Registered Engineer -- a person registered as a professional engineer with the State of Alabama Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, practicing under the Rules of Professional Conduct (Code of Ethics).

(44)Registered Land Surveyor -- a person registered as a professional land surveyor with the State of Alabama Board of Licensure for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors, practicing under the Rules of Professional Conduct (Code of Ethics).

(45)Residence -- a structure used as a home.

(46)Roll-off Container - special dumpsters designed to be rolled on and off of transport vehicles.

(47)Rubbish -- nonputrescible solid waste, excluding ashes, consisting of both combustible and noncombustible waste. Combustible rubbish includes, but is not limited to, paper, rags, cartons, wood, furniture, rubber, plastics, yard trimmings, leaves, and similar materials. Non-combustible rubbish includes, but is not limited to, glass, crockery, metal cans, metal furniture, and like materials which will not burn at ordinary incinerator temperatures, not less than 1600 degrees F.

(48)Scavenging -- the unauthorized or uncontrolled searching through, removal, or reclamation of waste materials from a solid waste handling or disposal facility.

(49)Shared Service -- an activity that qualifies a household or person to be excluded from participating in a mandatory collection program, provided that such household or person complies with the requirements set forth in Rule 420-3-5-.06(2)(b) of these Rules.

(50)Shredding -- the process of reducing the particle size of solid waste.

(51)Significant Interest -- all persons or business concerns, holding more than 5 percent of equity or debt liability of a business, unless the debt liability is held by a charter lending institution.

(52)Sinkhole -- a natural depression formed as a result of subsurface removal of soil or rock materials and causing the formation of a collapse feature that exhibits internal drainage. The existence of a sinkhole is typically indicated by closed depression contour lines on a United States Geological Survey 7.5-minute quadrangle topographic map, or as determined by field investigation. A sinkhole begins at the outer margins of the depression, as determined at the site by a professional geologist.

(53)Solid Waste Collection Fee Exemption - permission to participate in a mandatory solid waste collection service without payment of a fee granted by the county commission or municipal governing body to households whose sole source of income is social security benefits.

(54)Solid Waste -- any garbage, rubbish, construction or demolition debris, ash, or sludge from a waste treatment facility, water supply plant, or air pollution control facility, and any other discarded materials, including solid, liquid, semisolid, or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, or agricultural operations or community activities, or materials intended for or capable of recycling, but which have not been diverted or removed from the solid waste stream. The term "solid waste" does not include recovered materials, solid or dissolved materials in domestic sewage, solid or dissolved material in irrigation return flows, or industrial discharges which are point sources subject to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permits under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended, or the Alabama Waste Pollution Control Act, as amended, or the source, special nuclear, or by-product materials as defined by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended. Also excluded from this definition are land applications of crop residues, animal manure, and ash resulting exclusively from the combustion of wood during accepted agricultural operations, waste from silvicultural operations, or refuse as defined and regulated pursuant to the Alabama Surface Mining Act of 1969, Article 1, commencing with Section 916-1, or Chapter 16 or Title 9. For purposes of these rules, solid waste excludes medical waste and hazardous waste.

(55)State -- the state of Alabama.

(56)State Health Department -- the Alabama Department of Public Health as defined by Code of Ala. 1975, Section 22-2-1.

(57)State Health Officer -- the Health Officer for the State of Alabama as set out in Code of Ala. 1975, Section 22-2-8, or the designee thereof, as provided by law.

(58)Surface Water -- water above the surface of the ground, including, but not limited to, waters of a bay, river, stream, watercourse, pond, lake, swamp, wetland, spring or artesian well, located partially or wholly within the state, including the Gulf of Mexico. Generally, these features exhibit some characteristic(s) indicating a degree of permanence (i.e., a riverbank, a depression that holds water for a few days after a rain, or a wet weather spring does not qualify.).

(59)Transfer Station -- a facility, the primary purpose of which is to store or hold solid waste for transport to a processing or disposal facility. For purposes of these Rules, a transfer station does not include roadside containers, dumpsters or roll-off compactors when they are being used to fulfill the requirements of the Code of Ala. 1975, Section 22-27-3(a)(1).

(60)Transportation -- the movement of solid waste from the point of generation to a handling or disposal facility or from one handling or disposal facility to another.

(61)Transportation Unit -- the smallest containment housing that collectively makes up the whole of a shipment, into which solid waste is placed for transporting. This includes, but is not limited to, a single trailer load of compacted, loose-filled, or baled solid waste, or a container into which solid waste is placed in compacted, loose-filled or baled form; a railroad car filled with solid waste containing garbage that is placed in compacted, loose-filled or baled form.

(62)Transporter -- a person or public or private entity, engaged in the off-site transportation of solid waste, but does not include a person transporting his own solid waste pursuant to a Certificate of Exception issued by the appropriate regulatory authority.

(63)Unauthorized Dump -- any collection of solid wastes either dumped or caused to be dumped or placed on any public or private property, whether or not regularly used, and not having a permit from ADEM to do so. Abandoned automobiles, large appliances, or similar large items of solid waste shall be considered as forming an unauthorized dump within the meaning of these regulations. The careless littering of a relatively few, smaller individual items such as tires, bottles, cans, and the like shall not be considered an unauthorized dump, unless the accumulation of the solid waste poses a threat to human health or the environment. An unauthorized dump shall also mean any solid waste disposal site which does not meet the regulatory provisions of the Solid Wastes and Recyclable Materials Management Act.

(64)Variance -- an act of varying from what is required and what is taking place; where the requirements are being met in an alternative manner; or authorization to do some act contrary to the usual rule.

(65)Vector -- an organism that can carry or transmit a human pathogen, or human disease-causing agent, from one host to another.

(66)Vehicle - a type of equipment that collects or transports solid waste that includes but is not limited to trucks and trailers.

(67)Vermin -- any of the various small animals or insects that are destructive, annoying, or injurious to health, including, but not limited to, flies, cockroaches, rats, foxes, and weasels.

(68)Waiver -- to waive or set aside a requirement.

(69)Waters of the State (Water) -- subsurface or surfaced ground water, including aquifers, and surface water of a river, stream, watercourse, reservoir, pond, lake, or coast, wholly or partially within the state, natural or artificial. This does not include waters that are entirely confined and retained completely upon the property of a single individual, partnership, or corporation unless the owner or others use such waters in the conduct of interstate commerce.

(70)Water Table Elevation -- the upper limit of the portion of the ground wholly saturated with water.

(71)Wetland -- a transitional area between aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems that is inundated or saturated for long enough periods to produce hydric soils and support hydrophytic vegetation.

Ala. Admin. Code r. 420-3-5-.03

Adopted June 15, 1988; Filed June 20, 1988; effective July 25, 1988. Emergency Repeal and New Rule: Filed May 20, 1994; effective May 27,1994. Repealed and New Rule: Filed October 20, 1994; effective November 24, 1994. Emergency Repeal and New Rule: Filed November 20, 1997. Repealed and Replaced: Filed January 21, 1998; effective February 25, 1998.

Adopted by Alabama Administrative Monthly Volume XXXV, Issue No. 07, April 28, 2016, eff. 6/4/2017.

Amended by Alabama Administrative Monthly Volume XXXIX, Issue No. 12, September 30, 2021, eff. 11/14/2021.

Authors: Phyllis C. Mardis, Thad Pittman, Karen Bishop, Dillon Bullard, Johnny Burrell; Matthew Conner; Ken Stephens

Statutory Authority:Code of Ala. 1975, §§ 22-2-2(6), 22-10-1et seq., 22-27-1, et seq.