Back in January, the TCEQ began work on revising the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) rules applicable
to municipal solid waste (MSW) management in Texas. The rules are contained in Chapter 330 of Title 30 of the
Texas Administrative Code, so the rulemaking has been called the Chapter 330 rulemaking.
The TCEQ first made available a draft of the revised Chapter 330 rules on December 7, 2004. The TCEQ has made
available two more drafts since that time, with each draft reflecting changes requested by members of the MSW industry
and other stakeholders. TxSWANA has been actively involved in trying to shape the draft rules. TxSWANA
has been represented at over seven public meetings and several additional private meetings with TCEQ staff regarding
the Chapter 330 rules. Also, TxSWANA has filed three sets of written comments presenting its members' position
to the TCEQ.
The next step for the Chapter 330 rulemaking is for the draft rules to be presented to the TCEQ Commissioners for their
initial approval. Once the Commissioners approve the rules, they will be published in the Texas Register for
review by the general public and a formal review-and-comment process will begin. The TCEQ staff may then
revise the rules again and must then present the final draft of the rules to the Commissioners for their approval.
Once the Commissioners approve the revised rules, then the rules will be adopted and become applicable to
landfills across the state.
The draft rules propose to make big changes to the design and operational requirements that will be applicable to
landfills and other types of MSW facilities. One of the biggest issues in the rulemaking concerns what level
of buffer should be required around new and expanding landfills. The first draft provided that a landfill
buffer had to be three times the height of the landfill plus fifty feet! In other words, if a landfill
were entirely below ground or at ground level, fifty feet of buffer would be sufficient. However, if the
landfill were 250 feet tall, then it would require a buffer zone of 800 feet from the edge of the above-grade
waste. The second draft of the rule allowed that the buffer only needed to be 250 feet, regardless of the
height of the landfill. The third draft of the rule has further diminished the required buffer to only be
150 feet, but even this reduced required buffer may prevent many municipal landfills from expanding as planned.
Another big issue affecting both existing and planned landfills relates to monitor well spacing. The first
draft of the rules did not make significant changes, but the second draft proposed that all future landfills and
expansions of existing landfills have monitor wells spaced no more than 300 feet apart. Industry members
(including TxSWANA) objected to this automatic tight well spacing requirement. The third draft of the rules
removed the 300 foot requirement, but required applicants to prove the best distance through the use of a "fate and
transport model". The industry objected to the modeling requirement even more than the 300 foot requirement.
The rumor is that the next draft of the rules will return to the 300 foot requirement as opposed to modeling.
However, the rumor is also that the next draft of the rules will require even existing landfills not planning
to change their permits to come into the TCEQ to revise their current groundwater monitoring array to meet the new
300 foot spacing requirement. Stay tuned to see if this rumor will come to pass. Note that if it does,
your landfill may suddenly be affected even if otherwise is not planning any amendments. There may be a "call
in" for all landfills to modify their monitor well array similar to the "call in" for all landfills to modify their SOPs.
Another change proposed by the rulemaking relates to collecting groundwater samples. The draft rules propose to
prohibit field filtering of groundwater samples. The industry argued to the TCEQ that if site-specific conditions
warrant it, field filtering should be allowed. TxSWANA noted that field filtration can be used to remove the
immobile sediment fraction that may contribute to the turbidity of a sample and that turbidity is an important field
concern for samples to be analyzed for metals (e.g. cadmium, nickel, zinc) or metalloids (e.g. arsenic, selenium).
The TCEQ staff remains adamant, however, that field-filtering should be prohibited. This prohibition
means that "background levels" established through the field filtering method will need to be changed to account for
the different non-field filtering method.
Several other less significant-but helpful-changes have been made as a part of the Chapter 330 rulemaking. For
example, the draft rules propose to allow whole tires to be disposed of so long as the tires are "processed prior to
disposal in a manner acceptable to the executive director." This would allow operators to utilize any
technology that the operator can show is adequate to enable disposal of tires without them later "floating" to
the top and interfering with disposal operations. This rule would, for example, allow tire-bailing.
Other changes in the draft rules include an increase in county authority and a reduction in the TCEQ level of
authorization needed for certain low-risk waste activities (e.g. Type IV AE landfills, methane recovery operations,
and small rural transfer stations). The TCEQ believes that these activities do not warrant the level of
staff time and attention previously afforded them. By making the review of these projects less time consuming,
the TCEQ frees up staff to concentrate on higher-risk waste activities. Also, the draft rules propose to
reduce certain reporting requirements. For example, the TCEQ proposes to combine the 45 day groundwater
report with the 60 day groundwater report and to eliminate the ballast and liner evaluation report approvals
and soil boring plan approvals.
Anyone interested in further information on the draft rule can contact the authors at RFink(at)LGlawfirm or (512) 322-5867.
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