§ 27-0908. Hazardous waste reduction plans.

1. When used in this section, the following terms shall have the
following definitions:

a. "Acute hazardous waste" means any waste identified or listed as
such in the regulations promulgated under section 27-0903 of this title.

b. "Generator" means any person, by site, whose act or process
produces hazardous waste or whose act first causes a hazardous waste to
become subject to regulation.

c. "Hazardous waste" means any waste identified or listed as such in
the regulations promulgated under section 27-0903 of this title,
including "acute hazardous waste".

2. For the purposes of this section, hazardous wastes generated by any
corrective action required pursuant to this title for a release from a
hazardous waste treatment, storage or disposal facility, or by the
remediation of an inactive hazardous waste disposal site as defined in
subdivision two of section 27-1301 of this article, or by the cleanup of
a release to the environment reported pursuant to article 17, 37 or 40
of this chapter, or demolition and construction debris, or wastes which
are otherwise subject to the requirements of this section shall not be
included in the calculation of the amount of hazardous wastes generated
by a person annually, nor shall such wastes be subject to the waste
reduction planning requirements for this section.

3. a. Any generator of equal to or greater than one thousand tons of
hazardous waste in the calendar year nineteen hundred ninety or any
subsequent calendar year shall prepare, implement and submit to the
department a written hazardous waste reduction plan on or before July
first of the following calendar year.

b. Any generator of equal to or greater than five hundred tons of
hazardous waste in the calendar year nineteen hundred ninety-one or any
subsequent calendar year shall prepare, implement and submit to the
department a written hazardous waste reduction plan on or before July
first of the following calendar year.

c. Any generator of equal to or greater than fifty tons of hazardous
waste in the calendar year nineteen hundred ninety-two or any subsequent
calendar year shall prepare, implement and submit to the department a
written hazardous waste reduction plan on or before July first of the
following calendar year.

d. Any generator of equal to or greater than twenty-five tons of
hazardous waste in the calendar year nineteen hundred ninety-five or any
subsequent calendar year shall prepare, implement and submit to the
department a written hazardous waste reduction plan on or before July
first of the following calendar year.

e. Notwithstanding any other provision of this subdivision, any
generator required to hold a hazardous waste storage, treatment or
disposal permit for the on-site management of hazardous waste pursuant
to section 27-0913 of this title shall prepare and submit to the
department, a written hazardous waste reduction plan on or before July
first, nineteen hundred ninety-one or as part of any new permit
application, and shall thereafter implement the plan.

4. The hazardous waste reduction plan required under this section
shall include:

a. an identification of the amounts and types of any acute hazardous
waste as reported pursuant to subdivision six of section 27-0907 of this
title; and an identification of the amounts and types of hazardous
wastes generated during the previous calendar year which are either (i)
in amounts greater than five tons or (ii) which account for at least
ninety percent of all hazardous wastes generated by such generator at
that facility, whichever represents the greater amount of hazardous
wastes. For each such hazardous waste, such plan shall also include:

(1) a description of the process, operation or activity that resulted
in the generation of such waste;

(2) a calculation of the amount of such waste generated per unit of
production output or raw material used, or other appropriate index, or a
demonstration why the calculation cannot be provided; and

(3) an estimate, and bases for such estimate, of the costs incurred
for managing such waste, including but not limited to, storage costs,
on-site treatment or disposal costs, transportation costs, commercial
disposal fees and regulatory fees or a demonstration why such
calculation cannot be provided.

b. For each such waste identified pursuant to paragraph a of this
subdivision, an evaluation of the technical feasibility and economic
practicability, including return on investment, of implementing waste
reduction processes, technologies or operational changes to reduce or
eliminate the generation of such waste. Such evaluation shall consider
the technical feasibility and economic practicability, where applicable,
of:

(i) substitution of non-toxic or less toxic inputs to the production
process which result in a reduction in the volume or toxicity of such
waste;

(ii) reformulation or redesign of end products to eliminate production
inputs or production processes that result in the generation of such
waste;

(iii) modification or redesign of production processes, technologies
or equipment which result in a reduction in the volume or toxicity of
such waste;

(iv) changes in materials usage, handling and storage practices,
including improved inventory control, preventive maintenance, spill and
leak prevention, and waste segregation, which will reduce the volume or
toxicity of such waste;

(v) the use of closed loop reclamation, reuse or recycling processes
or technologies which directly recycle such wastes back into the
production process; and

(vi) the use of on-site or off-site recycling technologies or
processes that reduce the amount of such waste that must be treated or
disposed of.

c. Establishment and description of a program for implementing
technically feasible and economically practicable waste reduction
alternatives. Such program shall include:

(i) establishment of a general corporate, facility or organizational
waste reduction policy, including a statement of waste reduction goals,
along with a plan for communicating such policy and statement of goals
to relevant employees and management personnel;

(ii) a time schedule for implementing each technically feasible and
economically practicable waste reduction technology, process or
operational change identified pursuant to paragraph b of this
subdivision;

(iii) designation of the office or department responsible for
implementing the waste reduction plan;

(iv) a method of waste reduction measurement which will provide a
basis for charting waste reduction trends over time; and

(v) appropriate employee training programs to assure proper
implementation of the economically practicable and technically feasible
waste reduction alternatives identified pursuant to paragraph b of this
subdivision.

d. An evaluation of the anticipated reduction, in tons or other
appropriate measurement, in the amount of hazardous wastes produced by
the generator as a result of the implementation of each of the
technically feasible and economically practicable waste reduction
options identified pursuant to paragraph b of this subdivision.

e. An evaluation of the extent, if any, to which the implementation of
each of the technically feasible and economically practicable waste
reduction options identified pursuant to paragraph b of this subdivision
may result in the transference of hazardous wastes into any other
environmental media and the environmental benefits, if any, of the waste
reduction option resulting in such transference.

5. The hazardous waste reduction plan required pursuant to this
section shall be updated at least biennially to reflect changes in the
types and amounts of hazardous wastes produced by the generator. In
preparing such update, the generator shall evaluate or reevaluate the
technical feasibility and economic practicability of waste reduction
alternatives as required pursuant to subdivision four of this section
for each such waste, and, if appropriate, shall revise the schedule for
implementing technically feasible and economically practicable waste
reduction alternatives; provided, that no evaluation or reevaluation
shall be required for such wastes no longer produced by the generator.
Such update shall provide continuity with previously prepared plans.

6. As a part of its hazardous waste generator report required pursuant
to subdivision six of section 27-0907 of this title, each generator
required to prepare a hazardous waste reduction plan pursuant to this
section shall submit to the department an annual status report
describing such generator's progress in achieving its time schedule for
implementing technically feasible and economically practicable waste
reduction alternatives, pursuant to paragraph c of subdivision four of
this section. If such generator does not implement a waste reduction
technology, process or operational change identified in such time
schedule, the annual status report shall identify the reason such
activity was not implemented and include a reasonable revised time
schedule for implementing such waste reduction alternative. If a
generator determines that any method of waste reduction chosen and
implemented is not achieving the degree of waste reduction anticipated,
notwithstanding commitments made in the plan or biennial update, the
generator may choose and implement another waste reduction alternative
more likely to achieve waste reduction. The generator shall explain such
action in the annual status report and account for such action in the
biennial updates pursuant to paragraphs c, d and e of subdivision four
of this section.

7. On or before January first, nineteen hundred ninety-one, the
department shall prepare and distribute a guidance manual to assist
generators in complying with the requirements of this section.

8. The department shall review each plan submitted pursuant to this
section according to the schedule provided hereafter. The submission of
such plan shall not be considered a permit application within
subdivision four of section 70-0105 of this chapter and shall not be
deemed to be a license application within subdivision four of section
one hundred two of the state administrative procedure act.

a. After July first, nineteen hundred ninety-one, the department shall
review and may reject, in accordance with the standards set forth in
subdivision nine of this section, those portions of such plan which
address hazardous wastes which are managed in a land disposal facility.

b. After July first, nineteen hundred ninety-three, the department
shall review and may reject, in accordance with the standards set forth
in subdivision nine of this section, those portions of such plan which
address hazardous wastes which are managed through treatment, including
wastes managed through thermal destruction or wastes burned as fuel for
the purpose of recovering usable energy; and

c. On or after July first, nineteen hundred ninety-five, the
department shall review and may reject, in accordance with the standards
set forth in subdivision nine of this section, all plans submitted by a
generator utilizing recovery, reuse or recycling, except closed loop
recycling directly back into the production process, as management
methods.

d. Notwithstanding any other provision of law the department shall not
be authorized to reject any plan or biennial update for which a notice
of deficiency pursuant to paragraph a of subdivision ten of this section
has not been provided to the generator within twelve months of the date
such plan or biennial update was submitted.

9. The review of hazardous waste reduction plans conducted by the
department pursuant to the schedule set forth in subdivision eight of
this section shall be subject to the following standards. The department
may reject any plan or biennial update thereof which:

a. fails to contain all the components required pursuant to
subdivision four of this section;

b. fails to apply generally accepted engineering, scientific or
economic principles and practices;

c. accomplishes waste reduction by transference to other environmental
media without an environmental benefit from such transference;

d. is inconsistent with the preferred hazardous waste management
practices hierarchy set forth in section 27-0105 of this article;

e. involves conduct which is prohibited by any applicable law or
regulation;

f. fails to provide a basis for charting waste reduction trends over
time;

g. beginning with the submission of the first biennial update, fails
to demonstrate reasonable progress in implementing those technically
feasible and economically practicable waste reduction alternatives
chosen by the generator according to the time schedule developed
pursuant to paragraph c of subdivision four of this section; or

h. beginning with the submission of the first biennial update, fails
to demonstrate reasonable progress in waste reduction employing the
methods of waste reduction and calculation provided in the plan, or as
modified in the annual report, or fails to reevaluate the technically
feasible and economically practicable waste reduction alternatives as
required pursuant to subdivision five of this section.

10. a. In proposing to reject any plan or biennial update thereof, the
department shall provide to the generator a notice detailing the
specific deficiencies the department has identified consistent with the
standards set forth in subdivision nine of this section.

b. Upon receipt of such notice, the generator shall have up to sixty
days to prepare a rebuttal or to modify the plan or biennial update to
address the deficiencies identified in the notice and to submit such
rebuttal or modified plan or update to the department.

c. If the department determines that the plan or update should not be
rejected, it shall notify the generator within thirty days of submittal
of a rebuttal or modified plan or update. If the department determines
that the rebuttal or modified plan or update has not adequately
addressed the specific deficiencies identified in the notice, or if the
rebuttal or modified plan or update is not submitted within the time
period specified in paragraph b of this subdivision, the department in
its discretion may require further modifications, consistent with the
specific deficiencies identified in the notice, within a time to be
determined by the department, or make a determination to reject such
plan or update. Any determination to require further modifications shall
be made and provided to the generator within thirty days of submittal of
a rebuttal or modified plan or update.

d. Immediately upon making a determination to reject a plan or
biennial update the department shall provide to the generator a notice
of final rejection. Such notice of final rejection shall detail the
specific deficiencies consistent with the standards set forth in
subdivision nine of this section.

e. Within fifteen days of the date of a notice of final rejection from
the department pursuant to this subdivision, a generator may request a
hearing pursuant to article three of the state administrative procedure
act. The department shall notify the generator of a date and place for a
hearing, to be commenced not later than sixty days from the date of such
notification, unless an extension of time has been agreed to pursuant to
paragraph j of this subdivision.

f. The department may not require any modification to the plan or
biennial update or raise any issue at hearing not identified in the
notice of final rejection provided pursuant to paragraph d of this
subdivision.

g. The certification prohibition in subdivision eleven of this section
shall not be effective until a determination is made by the department
after hearing, or until time to request such hearing has expired.

h. Any final determination of the department is reviewable pursuant to
article seventy-eight of the civil practice law and rules.

i. Such review shall be commenced within the time limits set forth in
section two hundred seventeen of the civil practice law and rules.

j. Any time period specified in this subdivision may be extended in
writing by mutual consent of the generator and the department.

11. Any generator who has submitted a hazardous waste reduction plan
according to the time schedule set forth in subdivision three of this
section, which plan has not been rejected by the department, is
authorized to make the certifications required under sections 27-0907
and 27-0913 of this title; provided, however, that no such generator
shall make such certifications if such plan has been rejected by the
department. These restrictions shall not apply to hazardous waste
generated prior to the date the plan was rejected.

12. Information required to be provided to the department under this
section shall be subject to the provisions of section 27-0919 of this
title.

13. On or before January first, nineteen hundred ninety-three, the
department shall prepare and present to the governor and the legislature
a report analyzing the desirability of requiring waste reduction
pursuant to this section on the part of generators of greater than
fifteen tons and less than twenty-five tons of hazardous waste per
calendar year. Such report shall include the number of generators in
this category, the amount of wastes produced by such generators, the
environmental benefit likely to be achieved, an evaluation of the
potential economic impact on industry and a description of the
additional resources that the department would require to analyze and
approve waste reduction plans submitted by this group of generators.

14. The department shall not impose planning and reduction
requirements other than those authorized pursuant to this section for
those hazardous wastes which are managed in a land disposal facility,
managed through treatment, or managed through recovery, reuse or
recycling and which are subject to the requirements of this section.
Provided however, nothing herein shall be construed to limit the
department's authority contained elsewhere in this chapter to require
planning and reductions in emissions, discharges or other releases.