N.Y. Environmental Conservation Law § 27-0912: Land disposal of hazardous waste

§ 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.