Bill Summary for H 157 (2015-2016)

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Summary date: 

Mar 10 2015

Bill Information:

View NCGA Bill Details2015-2016 Session
House Bill 157 (Public) Filed Wednesday, March 4, 2015
AN ACT TO AMEND VARIOUS ENVIRONMENTAL LAWS.
Intro. by McElraft, Catlin.

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Bill summary

House committee substitute makes the following changes to the 1st edition.

Part II.

Amends GS 130A-290, definitions for Article 9, Solid Waste Management, defining steel slag as a product of the electric arc furnace steelmaking process that is sold and distributed in the stream of commerce for consumption and use and managed as an item of commercial value in a controlled way. 

Amends GS 130A-309.05 concerning regulated wastes to add language that provides that materials that are accumulated speculatively, as specified, do not qualify as a recovered material and are subject to regulation as solid waste.  Provides that in order to qualify as a recovered material, the material must be managed as a valuable commodity in a manner consistent with the desired use or end use and must meet the specified four conditions. Amends the first condition to be that 75%, by weight or volume, of the recovered material stored at a facility at the beginning of a calendar year commencing January 1 must be removed from the facility through sale, use, or reuse by December 31 of the same year (previously, required a majority of the material to be  sold, used, or reused within one year). Adds new requirement that recovered material cannot contain significant concentrations of foreign constituents that render it unserviceable or inadequate for sale or its intended use or reuse. 

Amends GS 130A-294 by adding two new subsections concerning the solid waste management program, providing that construction and demolition debris, as well as garbage, diverted from the waste stream or collected as source separated material is subject to a solid waste permit for transfer, treatment, and processing in a permitted solid waste management facility. 

Amends GS 130A-309.131, the definitions for use in Part 2G, Plastic Bag Management, updating definitions concerning computers, deleting separate definitions for a notebook or desktop computer. Adds new definition for an electronic device. 

Enacts new GS 130A-309.142, Registration of facilities recovering or recycling electronics required, providing that facilities that recover or recycle covered devices or other electronic devices diverted from the waste stream for transfer, treatment, or processing must register annually with the Department of Health and Human Services on or before August 1 of each year.

Amends GS 130A-309.82 to provide that a county must use the proceeds of the tax distributed to it under Article 5C of GS 105 for the management of discarded white goods and electronic devices, as defined in GS 130A-309.131 (previously, only required counties to use the proceeds to discard white goods). Deletes language that referred to the cleanup of illegal disposal sites consisting of more than 50% discarded white goods and the cleanup of the white goods in disposal sites where white goods compose less than 50% of the waste. Makes conforming changes. Effective July 1, 2015. 

Part III.

Amends GS 130A-309.201(7) providing that Commission in Part 2 I, Coal Ash Management Act of 2014, means the Coal Ash Management Commission (previously, Commission meant the Environmental Management Commission).  

Enacts new GS 130A-309.205(a1) which provides that "Commission," for use in this statute, means the Environmental Management Commission. 

Amends GS 130A-309.220(a)(6) to provide that the term Commission refers to the Environmental Management Commission. 

Amends Section 3(c) of SL 2014-122, correcting a reference to GS 130A-309.204 to GS 130A-309.211.

Amends Section 3(f) of SL 2014-122, deleting language that required the first report due under GS 130A-309.210 to be due on November 1, 2014.

Amends Section 4(b) of SL 2014-122, making a technical change. 

Amends Section 4(f) of SL 2014-122 to provide that the section, once it became effective, applies to the use of coal combustion products as structural fill contracted for on or after that date (was, coal combustion residuals as structural fill). Effective retroactively to September 20, 2014, and applies to the use of coal combustion products as structural fill contracted for on or after that date. 

Amends GS 143-215.1(k), concerning sources of water pollution, changing references to the Director or the Director's designee to Secretary, meaning the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources.

Amends GS 62-302.1, making clarifying changes providing that in subsection (c) and (d), "Commission" refers to the Coal Ash Management Commission.

Amends GS 113-415 concerning conflicting laws, replacing a reference to the Environmental Management Commission with the Commission for Public Health. 

Part IV.

Amends the following statutes: GS 143-214.8, 143-214.9, 143-214.10, 143-214.11, 143-214.12, 143-214.13, and 143-214.14, changing the name of the Ecosystem Enhancement Program to the Division of Mitigation Services. 

Part V.

Amends GS 113B-3 to provide that the membership of the Energy Policy Council can include: (1) the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources designee instead of the Secretary; (2) the Secretary of Commerce designee instead of the Secretary; and (3) the Lieutenant Governor's designee instead of the Lieutenant Governor. Requires a Council member to be automatically removed for failing to attend three successive Council meetings without just cause. Gives the Governor the power to remove any member of the Council from office for misfeasance, malfeasance, or nonfeasance.

Part VI.

Amends GS 113-391(a3) to require the Environmental Management Commission, after considering recommendations from the Mining and Energy Commission, to adopt rules for the regulation of toxic air emissions from drilling if it determines that the state's air toxics program or any federal regulations governing toxic air emissions from drilling operations are inadequate to protect the public health, safety, welfare, and the environment (previously, did not require a determination of inadequacy to regulate such toxic air emissions). Effective retroactively to July 2, 2012.

Part VII.

Includes a severability clause.