Unless the context requires a different definition, in this chapter:
(1) “Advanced recycling facility” means a manufacturing facility that receives, stores, and converts post-use polymers and recoverable feedstocks using advanced recycling technologies and processes including pyrolysis, gasification, solvolysis, and depolymerization. For purposes of this chapter and rules adopted by the commission under this chapter, an advanced recycling facility is not a solid waste facility, final disposal facility, waste-to-energy facility, or incinerator.
(1-a) “Apparent recharge zone” means that recharge zone designated on maps prepared or compiled by, and located in the offices of, the commission.
(2) “Class I industrial solid waste” means an industrial solid waste or mixture of industrial solid waste, including hazardous industrial waste, that because of its concentration or physical or chemical characteristics:
(A) is toxic, corrosive, flammable, a strong sensitizer or irritant, or a generator of sudden pressure by decomposition, heat, or other means; and
(B) poses or may pose a substantial present or potential danger to human health or the environment if improperly processed, stored, transported, or otherwise managed.
(3) “Class I nonhazardous industrial solid waste” means any Class I industrial solid waste that has not been identified or listed as a hazardous waste by the administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C. § 6901 et seq.).
(4) “Commercial hazardous waste management facility” means any hazardous waste management facility that accepts hazardous waste or PCBs for a charge, except a captured facility or a facility that accepts waste only from other facilities owned or effectively controlled by the same person, where “captured facility” means a manufacturing or production facility that generates an industrial solid waste or hazardous waste that is routinely stored, processed, or disposed of on a shared basis in an integrated waste management unit owned, operated by, and located within a contiguous manufacturing complex.
(5) “Commission” means the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
(6) “Composting” means the controlled biological decomposition of organic solid waste under aerobic conditions.
(6-a) “Depolymerization” means a manufacturing process through which post-use polymers are broken down into:
(A) smaller molecules, including monomers and oligomers; or
(B) raw materials or intermediate or final products, including plastics and chemical feedstocks, basic and unfinished chemicals, waxes, lubricants, or coatings.
(7) “Disposal” means the discharging, depositing, injecting, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of solid waste or hazardous waste, whether containerized or uncontainerized, into or on land or water so that the solid waste or hazardous waste or any constituent thereof may be emitted into the air, discharged into surface water or groundwater, or introduced into the environment in any other manner.
(8) “Environmental response law” means the federal Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, 42 U.S.C. Sections 9601 through 9675, as amended by the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act of 1986.
(9) “Executive director” means the executive director of the commission.
(10) “Garbage” means solid waste that is putrescible animal and vegetable waste materials from the handling, preparation, cooking, or consumption of food, including waste materials from markets, storage facilities, and the handling and sale of produce and other food products.
(10-a) “Gasification” means a process through which recoverable feedstocks are heated and converted into a fuel-gas mixture in an oxygen-deficient atmosphere and the mixture is converted into valuable raw materials or valuable intermediate or final products, including plastic monomers, chemicals, waxes, lubricants, or chemical feedstocks. The term does not include incineration.
(10-b) Repealed by Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 237 (H.B. 3060), Sec. 8, eff. May 27, 2023.
(11) “Hazardous substance”:
(A) means:
(i) a substance designated under Section 311(b)(2)(A) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended (33 U.S.C. § 1321);
(ii) an element, compound, mixture, solution, or substance designated under Section 102 of the environmental response law;
(iii) a hazardous waste having the characteristics identified under or listed under Section 3001 of the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended (42 U.S.C. § 6921), excluding waste, the regulation of which under the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act (42 U.S.C. § 6901 et seq.) has been suspended by Act of Congress;
(iv) a toxic pollutant listed under Section 307(a) of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 U.S.C. § 1317);
(v) a hazardous air pollutant listed under Section 112 of the federal Clean Air Act, as amended (42 U.S.C. § 7412); and
(vi) any imminently hazardous chemical substance or mixture with respect to which the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency has taken action under Section 7 of the Toxic Substances Control Act (15 U.S.C. § 2606); but
(B) does not include:
(i) petroleum, which means crude oil or any fraction of crude oil that is not otherwise specifically listed or designated as a hazardous substance under Paragraphs (i) through (vi) of Subdivision (A);
(ii) natural gas, natural gas liquids, liquefied natural gas, or synthetic gas usable for fuel mixtures of natural gas and synthetic gas; or
(iii) waste materials that result from activities associated with the exploration, development, or production of oil or gas or geothermal resources or any other substance or material regulated by the Railroad Commission of Texas under Section 91.101, Natural Resources Code.
(12) “Hazardous waste” means solid waste identified or listed as a hazardous waste by the administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, as amended (42 U.S.C. § 6901 et seq.).
(13) “Hazardous waste management facility” means all contiguous land, including structures, appurtenances, and other improvements on the land, used for processing, storing, or disposing of hazardous waste. The term includes a publicly or privately owned hazardous waste management facility consisting of processing, storage, or disposal operational hazardous waste management units such as one or more landfills, surface impoundments, waste piles, incinerators, boilers, and industrial furnaces, including cement kilns, injection wells, salt dome waste containment caverns, land treatment facilities, or a combination of units.
(14) “Hazardous waste management unit” means a landfill, surface impoundment, waste pile, industrial furnace, incinerator, cement kiln, injection well, container, drum, salt dome waste containment cavern, or land treatment unit, or any other structure, vessel, appurtenance, or other improvement on land used to manage hazardous waste.
(14-a) “Health care-related facility” means a facility listed under 25 T.A.C. Section 1.134. The term does not include:
(A) a single-family or multifamily dwelling; or
(B) a hotel, motel, or other establishment that provides lodging and related services for the public.
(15) “Industrial furnace” includes cement kilns, lime kilns, aggregate kilns, phosphate kilns, coke ovens, blast furnaces, smelting, melting, or refining furnaces, including pyrometallurgical devices such as cupolas, reverberator furnaces, sintering machines, roasters, or foundry furnaces, titanium dioxide chloride process oxidation reactors, methane reforming furnaces, pulping liquor recovery furnaces, combustion devices used in the recovery of sulfur values from spent sulfuric acid, and other devices the commission may list.
(16) “Industrial solid waste” means solid waste resulting from or incidental to a process of industry or manufacturing, or mining or agricultural operations.
(17) “Local government” means:
(A) a county;
(B) a municipality; or
(C) a political subdivision exercising the authority granted under § 361.165.
(18) “Management” means the systematic control of the activities of generation, source separation, collection, handling, storage, transportation, processing, treatment, recovery, or disposal of solid waste.
(18-a) “Medical waste” means treated and untreated special waste from health care-related facilities composed of animal waste, bulk blood, bulk human blood, bulk human body fluids, microbiological waste, pathological waste, and sharps, as those terms are defined by 25 T.A.C. Section 1.132, as well as regulated medical waste, as that term is defined by 49 C.F.R. § 173.134. The term does not include:
(A) waste produced on a farm or ranch as defined by 34 T.A.C. Section 3.296(f); or
(B) artificial, nonhuman materials removed from a patient and requested by the patient, including orthopedic devices and breast implants.
(19) “Motor vehicle” has the meaning assigned by § 541.201, Transportation Code.
(20) “Municipal solid waste” means solid waste resulting from or incidental to municipal, community, commercial, institutional, or recreational activities, and includes garbage, rubbish, ashes, street cleanings, dead animals, abandoned automobiles, and other solid waste other than industrial solid waste.
(21) “Notice of intent to file an application” means the notice filed under § 361.063.
(22) “PCBs” or “polychlorinated biphenyl compounds” means compounds subject to Title 40 of the Code of Federal Regulations, Part 761.
(23) “Person” means an individual, corporation, organization, government or governmental subdivision or agency, business trust, partnership, association, or any other legal entity.
(24) “Person affected” means a person who demonstrates that the person has suffered or will suffer actual injury or economic damage and, if the person is not a local government:
(A) is a resident of a county, or a county adjacent or contiguous to the county, in which a solid waste facility is to be located; or
(B) is doing business or owns land in the county or adjacent or contiguous county.
(24-a) “Post-use polymers” means plastics that:
(A) are derived from any industrial, commercial, agricultural, or domestic activity, including preconsumer recovered materials and postconsumer materials;
(B) are sorted from solid waste and other regulated waste and may contain residual amounts of organic material and incidental contaminants or impurities such as paper labels or metal rings;
(C) are not mixed with solid waste or hazardous waste onsite or during processing at an advanced recycling facility;
(D) are used or intended for use as a feedstock or for the production of feedstocks, raw materials, or other intermediate or final products using advanced recycling; and
(E) are processed or held prior to processing at an advanced recycling facility.
(25) “Processing” means the extraction of materials from or the transfer, volume reduction, conversion to energy, or other separation and preparation of solid waste for reuse or disposal. The term includes the treatment or neutralization of hazardous waste designed to change the physical, chemical, or biological character or composition of a hazardous waste so as to neutralize the waste, recover energy or material from the waste, render the waste nonhazardous or less hazardous, make it safer to transport, store, or dispose of, or render it amenable for recovery or storage, or reduce its volume. The term does not include:
(A) pyrolysis, gasification, solvolysis, or depolymerization; or
(B) activities concerning those materials exempted by the administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, as amended (42 U.S.C. § 6901 et seq.), unless the commission determines that regulation of the activity under this chapter is necessary to protect human health or the environment.
(25-a) “Pyrolysis” means a manufacturing process through which post-use polymers are heated in an oxygen-deficient atmosphere and the pyrolysis product is converted into valuable raw materials or valuable intermediate or final products, including plastic monomers, chemicals, naphtha, waxes, polymers, or plastic and chemical feedstocks. The term does not include incineration.
(25-b) Repealed by Acts 2023, 88th Leg., R.S., Ch. 237 (H.B. 3060), Sec. 8, eff. May 27, 2023.
(26) “Radioactive waste” means waste that requires specific licensing under Chapter 401 and the rules adopted by the commission under that law.
(26-a) “Recoverable feedstock” means one or more of the following materials, derived from recoverable waste other than coal refuse, that has been processed so that it may be used as feedstock in an advanced recycling facility or through gasification:
(A) post-use polymers; and
(B) material, including municipal solid waste and other post-industrial waste:
(i) for which the commission or the United States Environmental Protection Agency has made a non-waste determination under 40 C.F.R. § 241.3(c); or
(ii) that the commission or the United States Environmental Protection Agency has otherwise determined are feedstocks and not solid waste.
(27) “Recycling” has the meaning assigned by § 361.421.
(28) “Release” means any spilling, leaking, pumping, pouring, emitting, emptying, discharging, injecting, escaping, leaching, dumping, or disposing into the environment. The term does not include:
(A) a release that results in an exposure to a person solely within a workplace, concerning a claim that the person may assert against the person’s employer;
(B) an emission from the engine exhaust of a motor vehicle, rolling stock, aircraft, vessel, or pipeline pumping station engine;
(C) a release of source, by-product, or special nuclear material from a nuclear incident, as those terms are defined by the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended (42 U.S.C. § 2011 et seq.), if the release is subject to requirements concerning financial protection established by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission under Section 170 of that Act;
(D) for the purposes of Section 104 of the environmental response law, or other response action, a release of source, by-product, or special nuclear material from a processing site designated under Section 102(a)(1) or 302(a) of the Uranium Mill Tailings Radiation Control Act of 1978 (42 U.S.C. Sections 7912 and 7942); and
(E) the normal application of fertilizer.
(29) “Remedial action” means an action consistent with a permanent remedy taken instead of or in addition to a removal action in the event of a release or threatened release of a hazardous waste into the environment to prevent or minimize the release of hazardous waste so that the hazardous waste does not migrate to cause an imminent and substantial danger to present or future public health and safety or the environment. The term includes:
(A) actions at the location of the release, including storage, confinement, perimeter protection using dikes, trenches, or ditches, clay cover, neutralization, cleanup of released hazardous waste or contaminated materials, recycling or reuse, diversion, destruction, segregation of reactive waste, dredging or excavations, repair or replacement of leaking containers, collection of leachate and runoff, on-site treatment or incineration, provision of alternate water supplies, and any monitoring reasonably required to assure that those actions protect the public health and safety or the environment; and
(B) the costs of permanent relocation of residents, businesses, and community facilities if the administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency or the executive director determines that, alone or in combination with other measures, the relocation:
(i) is more cost-effective than and environmentally preferable to the transportation, storage, treatment, destruction, or secure disposition off-site of hazardous waste; or
(ii) may otherwise be necessary to protect the public health or safety.
(30) “Removal” includes:
(A) cleaning up or removing released hazardous waste from the environment;
(B) taking necessary action in the event of the threat of release of hazardous waste into the environment;
(C) taking necessary action to monitor, assess, and evaluate the release or threat of release of hazardous waste;
(D) disposing of removed material;
(E) erecting a security fence or other measure to limit access;
(F) providing alternate water supplies, temporary evacuation, and housing for threatened individuals not otherwise provided for;
(G) acting under Section 104(b) of the environmental response law;
(H) providing emergency assistance under the federal Disaster Relief Act of 1974 (42 U.S.C. § 5121 et seq.); or
(I) taking any other necessary action to prevent, minimize, or mitigate damage to the public health and welfare or the environment that may otherwise result from a release or threat of release.
(31) “Rubbish” means nonputrescible solid waste, excluding ashes, that consists of:
(A) combustible waste materials, including paper, rags, cartons, wood, excelsior, furniture, rubber, plastics, yard trimmings, leaves, and similar materials; and
(B) noncombustible waste materials, including glass, crockery, tin cans, aluminum cans, metal furniture, and similar materials that do not burn at ordinary incinerator temperatures (1,600 to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit).
(32) “Sanitary landfill” means a controlled area of land on which solid waste is disposed of in accordance with standards, rules, or orders established by the commission.
(33) “Sludge” means solid, semisolid, or liquid waste generated from a municipal, commercial, or industrial wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility, excluding the treated effluent from a wastewater treatment plant.
(34) This subdivision expires on delegation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 authority to the Railroad Commission of Texas. Subject to the limitations of 42 U.S.C. § 6903(27) and 40 C.F.R. § 261.4(a), “solid waste” means garbage, rubbish, 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, municipal, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations and from community and institutional activities. The term:
(A) does not include:
(i) solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage, or solid or dissolved material in irrigation return flows, or industrial discharges subject to regulation by permit issued under Chapter 26, Water Code;
(ii) soil, dirt, rock, sand, and other natural or man-made inert solid materials used to fill land if the object of the fill is to make the land suitable for the construction of surface improvements;
(iii) waste materials that result from activities associated with the exploration, development, or production of oil or gas or geothermal resources and other substance or material regulated by the Railroad Commission of Texas under Section 91.101, Natural Resources Code, unless the waste, substance, or material results from activities associated with gasoline plants, natural gas or natural gas liquids processing plants, pressure maintenance plants, or repressurizing plants and is hazardous waste as defined by the administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, as amended (42 U.S.C. § 6901 et seq.); or
(iv) post-use polymers or recoverable feedstocks processed through pyrolysis, gasification, solvolysis, or depolymerization that do not qualify as hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C. § 6901 et seq.); and
(B) does include hazardous substances, for the purposes of Sections 361.271 through 361.277 and 361.343 through 361.345.
(35) This subdivision is effective on delegation of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 authority to the Railroad Commission of Texas. Subject to the limitations of 42 U.S.C. § 6903(27) and 40 C.F.R. § 261.4(a), “solid waste” means garbage, rubbish, 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, municipal, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations and from community and institutional activities. The term:
(A) does not include:
(i) solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage, or solid or dissolved material in irrigation return flows, or industrial discharges subject to regulation by permit issued under Chapter 26, Water Code;
(ii) soil, dirt, rock, sand, and other natural or man-made inert solid materials used to fill land if the object of the fill is to make the land suitable for the construction of surface improvements;
(iii) waste materials that result from activities associated with the exploration, development, or production of oil or gas or geothermal resources and other substance or material regulated by the Railroad Commission of Texas under § 91.101, Natural Resources Code; or
(iv) post-use polymers or recoverable feedstocks processed through pyrolysis, gasification, solvolysis, or depolymerization that do not qualify as hazardous waste under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 (42 U.S.C. § 6901 et seq.); and
(B) does include hazardous substances, for the purposes of Sections 361.271 through 361.277 and 361.343 through 361.345.
(36) “Solid waste facility” means all contiguous land, including structures, appurtenances, and other improvements on the land, used for processing, storing, or disposing of solid waste. The term includes a publicly or privately owned solid waste facility consisting of several processing, storage, or disposal operational units such as one or more landfills, surface impoundments, or a combination of units. The term does not include an advanced recycling facility.
(37) “Solid waste technician” means an individual who is trained in the practical aspects of the design, operation, and maintenance of a solid waste facility in accordance with standards, rules, or orders established by the commission.
(37-a) “Solvolysis” means a manufacturing process through which post-use polymers are purified with the aid of solvents while heated at low temperatures, pressurized, or both heated at low temperatures and pressurized, to remove additives and contaminants and make useful products, including monomers, intermediates, valuable chemicals, plastic and chemical feedstocks, and raw materials. The process includes hydrolysis, aminolysis, ammonolysis, methanolysis, and glycolysis.
(38) “Storage” means the temporary holding of solid waste, after which the solid waste is processed, disposed of, or stored elsewhere.
(39) “Pollution” means the alteration of the physical, thermal, chemical, or biological quality of, or the contamination of, any land or surface or subsurface water in the state that renders the land or water harmful, detrimental, or injurious to humans, animal life, vegetation, or property or to public health, safety, or welfare or impairs the usefulness or the public enjoyment of the land or water for any lawful or reasonable purpose.