Part 480: Environmental Regulatory Program Fees
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§480.1 Declaration of Policy
Comprehensive environmental regulatory management programs are essential to protect New York's environmental resources and the public's health and welfare. Those regulated entities who use and impact on the State's environmental resources should bear the costs of the regulatory provisions which permit the use of these resources in a manner consistent with the environmental, economic and social needs of the State. Regulatory fees are an appropriate mechanism to pay a portion of the costs of the department's regulatory functions and programs and a portion of the costs to fund the cleanup of inactive hazardous waste disposal sites. Such fees should be borne by the State's regulated entities in order to further strengthen the State's capabilities to achieve its environmental quality objectives.
The words defined below have the following meanings when used in the regulations contained in Parts 480 through 486 of this Title. References to section numbers in the Environmental Conservation Law or regulations shall be deemed to include any succeeding sections in the event such sections are renumbered.
(a) Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) means the commissioner's representative who conducts a hearing required by the regulations.
(b) Argument means opinions or viewpoints, as distinguished from evidence.
(c) Average daily rate as used in Part 485 of this Title means the average daily rate flow of permitted wastewater discharges from the facility, totalled for all outfalls identified in the permit or otherwise requiring a permit pursuant to ECL article 17 and averaged on an annual calendar year basis.
(d) Calendar year means the year which begins on January 1st and ends on December 31st.
(e) Characteristic hazardous waste means a waste which satisfies the characteristics promulgated by the commissioner pursuant to title 9 of article 27 of the Environmental Conservation Law and is not listed hazardous waste.
(f) Combustion installation means a furnace, device, engine or turbine in which fossil fuel or wood is burned with air or oxygen and the air contaminant emissions include only those products resulting from:
(1) combustion of the fuel;
(2) additives or impurities in the fuel; and
(3) material introduced for the purpose of altering air contaminant emissions. A combustion installation may consist of:
(4) a single furnace exclusively connected to an air cleaning device or stack; or
(5) two or more furnaces connected to a common air cleaning device or stack.
(g) Commissioner means the Commissioner of Environmental Conservation.
(h) Department means the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
(i) Disposal means the abandonment, discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking or placing of any substance so that such substance or any of related constituent thereof may enter the environment. Disposal also means the thermal destruction of waste or hazardous waste and the burning of such wastes as fuel for the purpose of recovering useable energy.
(j) Environmental Conservation Law (ECL) means chapter 43-B of the Consolidated Laws of New York State.
(k) Evidence means sworn testimony of a witness, physical objects, documents or records or photographs representative of facts which have been admitted into the record by the ALJ.
(l) Facility, as used in Part 485 of this Title, means any establishment for which a general permit has been issued pursuant or required pursuant to subdivision 6 of ECL 70-0117 or any industrial, municipal or private, commercial or institutional establishment or any vessel for which a permit is required under titles 7 and 8 of article 17 of the ECL. If a facility can be classified into one or more categories because of multiple types of discharges, the category with the higher fee applies to all discharges.
(m) Facility operator, as used in Part 483 of this Title, means the person who is responsible for the operation of a treatment, storage or disposal facility.
(n) Facility owner, as used in Part 483 of this Title, means the person who owns a facility or part of a facility.
(o) 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.
(p) Governmental orgtanization means any Federal, State or municipal department, division, office or other governmental entity performing a governmental function for the United States, New York State or any of its subdivisions.
(q) Hazardous waste means a waste identified or listed as hazardous pursuant to title 9 of article 27 of the ECL.
(r) Hazardous waste generation means the act or process of producing hazardous waste.
(s) Hearsay means a statement, other than one made by a witness testifying at the hearing, offered in evidence to prove the truth of the matter asserted.
(t) Intake facility as used in Part 486 of this Title means any stationary or movable intake mechanism for the withdrawal of fresh water. For the purposes of this Title multiple intake mechanisms on shoreline facilities or vessels shall be considered as part of one facility.
(u) Incinerator means:
(1) For the purposes of determining the applicable air quality program fee or operating permit program fee set forth in Subparts 482-1 and 482-2 of this Title, any structure or furnace in which combustion takes place and in which type 0, 1, 2, 3 or 4 refuse, as classified in Table 1 of Chapter III, Appendix 2 of this Title, is used as a fuel, alone or in conjunction with fossil fuel.
(2) For purposes of determining the hazardous waste program fee as set forth in Part 483 of this Title, an enclosed device using controlled flame combustion, whose primary purpose is to thermally break down solid, liquid or gaseous combustible hazardous wastes, producing residue that contains little or no combustible materials.
(v) Industrial-commercial waste means a waste which originates at, is generated by or occurs as a result of any industrial or commercial activity. The forms of waste include, but are not limited to the following:
(1) liquids such as acids, alkalis, caustics, leachate, oil, petroleum (and its derivatives) and process of treatment wastewaters;
(2) sludges which are semisolid substances resulting from process or treatment operations, or residues from storage or use of liquids;
(3) solids such as solidified chemicals, paints or pigments; the end or byproducts of incineration ash; foundry sand or dredge spoil;
(4) contained gaseous materials;
(5) hazardous waste as defined in title 9 of article 27 of the ECL; and
(6) any liquid, sludge, septage, solid, semisolid substance or contained gaseous material in which any of the forms of waste described in paragraphs (1) through (5) of this subdivision is intermixed or absorbed, or onto which any of the forms of waste described in paragraphs (1) through (5) of this subdivision is adhered.
(w) Industrial facility, as used in Part 485 of this Title, includes a facility whose discharge results primarily from any process of industry, manufacturing, trade or business, or from the development or recovery of any natural resources discharging industrial waste as defined by section 17- 0105 of the ECL.
(x) Landfill means a disposal facility, as defined in Part 370 of this Title, or part of a treatment storage or disposal facility (TSDF) where solid waste, including hazardous waste, is placed in or on land, and which is not a land treatment facility, a surface impoundment or an injection well.
(y) Listed hazardous waste means a waste which appears on the list promulgated by the commissioner pursuant to title 9 of article 27 of the ECL.
(z) Municipal facility, as used in Part 485 of this Title, includes a facility which:
(1) is owned by a county, city, town, village, district corporation, improvement district or designated agency thereof or the New York State Environmental Facilities Corporation acting pursuant to subdivision 3 of section 1285 of the Public Authorities Law;
(2) provided wastewater collection and/or treatment to taxable service area(s);
(3) treats sewage as defined by section 17-0105 of the ECL, including raw discharges and combined sewer overflows; and
(4) is not otherwise defined as an industrial facility.
(aa) NYCRR means the Official Compilation of Codes, Rules and Regulations of the State of New York.
(ab) Low-level radioactive waste means radioactive material that:
(1) is not high-level radioactive waste, transuranic waste, spent nuclear fuel, or the tailings or wastes produced by the extraction or concentration of uranium or thorium from any ore processed primarily for its source material content; and
(2) the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission, consistent with Federal law and in accordance with paragraph (1) of this subdivision, classifies as low-level radioactive waste.
(ac) Onsite, for the purposes of Parts 480-486 only, means the same or geographically contiguous property, which may be divided by public or private right-of-way. Noncontiguous properties, owned by the same person, but connected by a right-of-way which the person controls, and to which the public does not have access, are also considered onsite property.
(ad) P/C/I, as used in Part 485 of this Title, means a private, commercial or institutional facility which primarily discharges sewage and is not otherwise defined as an induistrial facility, a publicly owned treatment works, a power plant or ballast discharge.
(ae) Permit year, as used in Part 484 of this Title, means the period of time beginning on the date that a permit is issued and ending on the permit expiration date pursuant to Part 364 of this Title.
(af) Person means an individual, trust, firm, joint stock company, corporation (including a government corporation), partnership, association or a State or Federal government and any of its agencies, municipality, commission, political subdivision of a state or any interstate body.
(ag) Post-closure care period means the period when a facility is operating under the requirements of section 373-2.7 or 373-3.7 of this Title.
(ah) Power plant, as used in Part 485 of this Title, means any facility which generates electricity using a steam turbine and generator, which may be fueled by coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear energy or other fuel source.
(ai) Pretreatment wastewater treatment unit means a device which:
(1) is part of a wastewater treatment facility which is subject to regulation under section 307(b) of the Clean Water Act;
(2) receives and treats or stores an influent wastewater which is hazardous; or generates and accumulates a wastewater treatment sludge which is a hazardous waste; or treats or stores a wastewater treatment sludge which is a hazardous waste; and
(3) meets the definition of tank.
(aj) Process air contamination source means:
(1) any industrial, commercial, agricultural or other activity, operation, manufacture or treatment (except incineration of type 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 refuse, as classified in Table 1, Chapter III, Appendix 2 of this Title, Open Burning and Operation of Combustion Installations) in which chemical, biological or physical properties of the material or materials are changed and which emits air contaminants to the outdoor atmosphere; or
(2) any system which removes air contamination from any industrial, commercial, agricultural or other activity, operation, manufacture or treatment (except incineration of type 0, 1, 2, 3 and 4 refuse, defined in paragraph  of this subdivision) and transports them from their point of generation to the outdoor atmosphere. This includes any gasoline dispensing site which is subject to the certification requirements of 6 NYCRR 201.
(ak) Receipt means no later than five days after mailing, when a determination or other notice is mailed first-class, postage prepaid by the Department of Environmental Conservation.
(al) Refuse means all waste material, including but not limited to garbage, rubbish, incineration residue, street cleanings, dead aminals and offal.
(am) Regulations mean the body of regulations contained in Parts 480 through 486 of this Title, inclusive.
(an) Relevant evidence means evidence supporting or refuting the existence of any fact that is of consequence or material to the commissioner's decision.
(ao) Required to obtain a permit for purposes of section 483.1(b) of this Title means any hazardous waste management facility which has a permit, has interim status or conducts any hazardous waste management activity not exempted by section 373-1.1(d) of this Title.
(ap) Septage means the contents of a septic tank, cesspool or other individual sewage treatment facility which receives domestic sewage wastes.
(aq) SPDES program means State pollution discharge elimination system and represents those department activities specified in titles 7 and 8 of article 17 of the ECL related to discharges into the waters of the State and any related enforcement activities.
(ar) State, when capitalized, means the State of New York.
(as) State air quality control program means those department activities as specified in titles 3 and 5 of article 19 of the ECL, concerning air pollution and air contamination and any related enforcement activities.
(at) State environmental regulatory program means any of the regulatory or permit programs for which fees are assessed under these regulations.
(au) State hazardous waste program means those department activities as specified in titles 3, 7, 9 and 11 of article 27 of the ECL, related to hazardous waste and any related enforcement activities.
(av) Stipulation means an agreement between the parties concerning one or more issues of fact or law.
(aw) Storage means the containment of hazardous waste, either on a temporary basis or for a period of years, in such a manner as not to constitute disposal.
(ax) Subpoena means a legal document that requires a person to appear at a hearing and testify and/or bring documents or physical objects.
(ay) Surface impoundment or impoundment means a facility or part of a facility which is a natural topographical depression, manufactured, constructed, or fabricated excavation or diked area formed primarily of earthen materials (although it may be lined with manufactured, constructed, or fabricated materials), which is designed to hold an accumulation of solid waste in semisolid or liquid form and which is not an injection well.
(az) Tank means a stationary device designed to contain an accumulation of hazardous waste, which is constructed primarily of nonearthen material (e.g., wood, concrete, steel or plastic) which provides structural support.
(ba) Treatment means any method, technique or process including neutralization designed to change the physical, chemical or biological character or composition of any hazardous waste so as to neutralize such waste or render it nonhazardous, safer for transport, amenable for recovery, amenable for storage or reduced in volume.
(bb) Treatment, storage or disposal facility (TSDF) means all contiguous land and structures, other appurtenances and improvements on the land used to treat, store or dispose of hazardous waste. It may consist of several treatment, storage or disposal operational units.
(bc) Waste means any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant or air pollution control facility and other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, agricultural operations and from community activities. It does not include solid or dissolved materials in domestic sewage or solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or industrial discharges which are point sources subject to permits under article 17 of the ECL. It also does not include source, special nuclear or byproduct material as defined in section 11 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, title 42, United States Code Annotated, section 2014, as amended through November 1978 (copy available from publisher: West Publishing Company, St. Paul, Minnesota; and copy available for public inspection and copying at Office of Counsel, Department of Environmental Conservation, 625 Broadway, Albany, NY 12233), except as may be provided by existing agreements between the State and the Federal governments.
(bd) Wastewater means liquid waste that contains:
(1) a minimum of 95 percent water by weight; and
(2) a maximum of one percent by weight of total organic carbon; and
(3) a maximum of one percent by weight of total suspended solids (i.e., total filterable solids).