§ 27-0912. Land disposal of hazardous waste.

1. The commissioner may promulgate rules and regulations restricting
or prohibiting the land disposal of specified hazardous wastes which are
identified or listed pursuant to section 27-0903 of this title. Such
rules and regulations may also restrict or prohibit the storage of any
hazardous waste, or classes of hazardous wastes, which is restricted or
prohibited from one or more methods of land disposal under this section
unless such storage is solely for the purpose of the accumulation of
such quantities of hazardous waste as are necessary to facilitate proper
recovery, treatment, or disposal.

2. The commissioner shall make a written determination of each such
waste or class of wastes for which land burial may not be adequately
protective of public health and the environment. In making any such
determination, the commissioner shall take into account the following
factors:

a. the long-term containment uncertainties associated with land
burial, and

b. characteristics of the hazardous waste which degrade containment
mechanisms used in authorized hazardous waste land burial facilities,
and

c. the persistence, toxicity, mobility, and propensity to
bio-accumulate of such hazardous wastes and their toxic constituents.

3. The commissioner may, upon application of any person, certify that
any specifically identified or listed hazardous waste or class of wastes
is exempt from a restriction or prohibition against land burial
established in the rules and regulations promulgated pursuant to this
section. Such certification of exemption may be issued only in the event
the commissioner makes a written determination that it is not
practicable, for the reasonably foreseeable future, to manage such
wastes by any means other than land burial, when public health,
environmental and economic factors are considered together.
Certificates of exemptions shall be valid for a fixed term not to exceed
one year. Any such certificate of exemption shall be published in the
environmental notice bulletin. Any request for a renewal, reissuance or
recertification of exemption shall be treated as an application for a
new certificate of exemption.

4. As used in this section, the term "land disposal" shall be deemed
to include, but not be limited to, any placement of hazardous waste in a
landfill, surface impoundment, waste pile, injection well, land
treatment facility, salt dome formation, salt bed formation, or
underground mine or cave; and the term "land burial" means any placement
of hazardous waste in or on land where the waste will remain after
closure. "Land burial" is a form of "land disposal".

5. Any rules and regulations, and any amendments thereof adopted
pursuant to the provisions of this section shall be subject to review
pursuant to article seventy-eight of the civil practice law and rules.