Ga. Comp. R. & Regs. R. 391-3-4-.01 - Definitions
(1) "Active Life"
means the period of operation beginning with the initial receipt of solid waste
and ending at completion of closure activities.
(2) "Active Portion" means that part of a
solid waste handling facility or landfill unit that has received or is
receiving wastes and that has not been closed.
(3) "Aquifer" means a geological formation,
group of formations, or portion of a formation capable of yielding significant
quantities of ground water to wells or springs.
(4) "Affected County" means, in addition to
the county in which a facility is or is proposed to be located, each county
contiguous to the host county and each county and municipality within a county
that has a written agreement with the facility to dispose of solid
waste.
(5) "Asbestos-Containing
Waste" means any solid waste containing more than 1 percent, by weight, of
naturally occurring hydrated mineral silicates separable into commercially used
fibers, specifically the asbestiform varieties of serpentine, chrysotile,
cummingtonite-grunerite, amosite, riebeckite, crocidolite, anthophyllite,
tremolite, and actinolite, using the method specified in 40 CFR, Part 763,
Subpart E, Appendix E, Section 1.
(6) "Baling" means a volume reduction
technique whereby solid waste is compressed into bales.
(7) "Biomedical Waste" means any solid waste
which contains pathological waste, biological waste, cultures, and stocks of
infectious agents and associated biologicals, contaminated animal carcasses
(body parts, their bedding, and other waste from such animals), chemotherapy
waste, discarded medical equipment and parts, not including expendable supplies
and materials, which have not been decontaminated, as further defined in Rule
391-3-4-.15.
(8) "Boiler" means a device as defined in
Chapter 391-3-11, the Rules for Hazardous Waste Management.
(9) "Bulking Agent" means the non-reactive,
solid material that is used to reduce the moisture content of waste via a
physical process such that the waste no longer meets the definition of Liquid
Waste as defined in these rules.
(10) "CCR Landfill" means an area of land or
an excavation that receives CCR and which is not a surface impoundment, an
underground injection well, a salt dome formation, a salt bed formation, an
underground or surface coal mine, or a cave. For purposes of this Chapter, a
CCR landfill also includes sand and gravel pits and quarries that receive CCR,
CCR piles, and any practice that does not meet the definition of a beneficial
use of CCR. This definition includes both active and inactive
landfills.
(11) "CCR Surface
Impoundment" means a natural topographic depression, man-made excavation, or
diked area owned or operated by an electric utility or independent power
producer, which is designed to hold an accumulation of CCR and liquids, and the
unit treats, stores, or disposes of CCR. This definition includes both active
and inactive surface impoundments, new and lateral expansions of surface
impoundments, dewatered surface impoundments, and NPDES-CCR surface
impoundments.
(12) "CCR Unit" means
any CCR landfill, CCR surface impoundment, or the lateral expansion of such
landfill or impoundment, or a combination of more than one of these units,
based on the context of the paragraph(s) in which it is used. This term
includes both new and existing units, unless otherwise specified.
(13) "Certificate" means a document issued by
a college or university of the University System of Georgia or other
organization approved by the Director, stating that the operator has met the
requirements of the Board for the specified operator classification of the
certification program.
(14)
"Closure" means a procedure approved by the Division which provides for the
cessation of waste receipt at a solid waste disposal site and for the securing
of the site in preparation for post-closure.
(15) "Coal Combustion Residuals (CCR)" means
fly ash, bottom ash, boiler slag, and flue gas desulfurization materials
generated from burning coal for the purpose of generating electricity by
electric utilities and independent power producers.
(16) "Collector" means the person or persons
as defined herein who, under agreements, verbal or written, with or without
compensation does the work of collecting and/or transporting solid wastes, from
industries, offices, retail outlets, businesses, institutions, and/or similar
locations, or from residential dwellings, provided however, that this
definition shall not include an individual collecting and/or transporting waste
from his own single family dwelling unit.
(17) "Commercial solid waste" means all types
of solid waste generated by stores, offices, restaurants, warehouses, and other
nonmanufacturing activities, excluding residential and industrial
wastes.
(18) "Composting" means the
controlled biological decomposition of organic matter into a stable, odor free
humus.
(19)
"Construction/Demolition Waste" means waste building materials and rubble
resulting from construction, remodeling, repair, and demolition operations on
pavements, houses, commercial buildings and other structures. Such waste
include, but are not limited to asbestos containing waste, wood, bricks, metal,
concrete, wall board, paper, cardboard, inert waste landfill material, and
other non-putrescible wastes which have a low potential for groundwater
contamination.
(20)
"Construction/Demolition Waste Landfill" means a landfill unit that accepts
construction/demolition waste. A Construction/Demolition Waste unit also may
receive inert waste and yard trimmings and may be publicly or privately
owned.
(21) "Contaminant which is
likely to pose a danger to human health" means any constituent in Appendix I,
II, III, or IV or other site specific constituents as specified by the Division
in the Groundwater Monitoring or Corrective Action Plan that is found at levels
statistically confirmed above a groundwater protection standard.
(22) "Detected" means statistically
significant evidence of contamination has been determined to exist by using
methods specified in Rule
391-3-4-.14.
(23) "Dimension Stone Fines" means small
stone particles usually resulting from sawing, grinding, or polishing dimension
stone with abrasive grit and water or other mechanical method. The process
producing the dimension stone fines must be water based and not include the use
of oils or chemicals.
(24)
"Dimension Stone Spalls" means Dimension Stone portions including slabs,
blocks, and pieces removed from monolithic commercial dimension stone products
during processing by cutting, breaking, or chipping. May also include dimension
stone rejected during processing due to cracking, staining, or other defects.
The process producing the dimension stone spalls must be water based and must
not include the use of oils or chemicals.
(25) "Director" means the Director of
Environmental Protection Division of the Department of Natural
Resources.
(26) "Disposal Facility"
means any facility or location where the final disposition of solid waste
occurs and includes, but is not limited to, landfilling and solid waste thermal
treatment technology facilities.
(27) "Division" means the Environmental
Protection Division of the Department of Natural Resources.
(28) "Generator" means any person in Georgia
or in any other state who creates solid waste.
(29) "Garbage" means food waste including
waste accumulations of animal or vegetable matter used or intended for use as
food, or that attends the preparation, use, cooking, dealing in or storing of
meat, fish, fowl, fruit or vegetables.
(30) "Groundwater" means water below the land
surface in a zone of saturation.
(31) "Hazardous Waste" means any solid waste
which has been defined as hazardous waste in regulations promulgated by the
Board of Natural Resources, Chapter 391-3-11.
(32) "High Moisture Content Waste" means
sludge, non-hazardous solidified liquids and bulking agents and/or
solidification/stabilization agents with moisture content greater than 40%. The
moisture content of non-hazardous household waste is excluded from this
definition.
(33) "Household waste"
means any solid waste (including garbage, trash, and sanitary waste in septic
tanks) derived from households (including single and multiple residences,
hotels and motels, bunkhouses, ranger stations, crew quarters, campgrounds,
picnic grounds, and day-use recreation areas).
(34) "Host Local Government" means the host
county or other local governmental jurisdiction within whose boundaries a
municipal solid waste disposal facility is located.
(35) "Industrial Furnace" means a device as
defined in Chapter 391-3-11, the Rules for Hazardous Waste
Management.
(36) "Industrial Waste"
means solid waste generated by manufacturing or industrial processes that is
not a hazardous waste regulated under the Hazardous Waste Management Act and
regulations promulgated by the Board of Natural Resources, Chapter 391-3-11.
Such waste includes, but is not limited to, wastes resulting from the following
manufacturing processes: Electric power generation; fertilizer/agricultural
chemicals; food and related products/by-products; inorganic chemicals; iron and
steel manufacturing; leather and leather products; nonferrous metals
manufacturing/foundries; inorganic chemicals; plastics and resins
manufacturing; pulp and paper industry; rubber and miscellaneous plastic
products; stone, glass, clay, and concrete products; textile manufacturing;
transportation equipment; and water treatment. This term does not include
mining waste or oil or gas waste.
(37) "Inert Waste Landfill" means a disposal
facility accepting only wastes that will not or are not likely to cause
production of leachate of environmental concern. Such wastes are limited to
earth and earth-like products, concrete, cured asphalt, rock, bricks, yard
trimmings, stumps, limbs, and leaves. This definition excludes industrial and
demolition waste not specifically listed above.
(38) "Lateral expansion" means a horizontal
expansion of the waste boundaries of an existing MSWLF unit or landfill
unit.
(39) "Leachate" means a
liquid that has passed through or emerged from solid waste and contains
soluble, suspended, or miscible materials removed from such wastes.
(40) "Landfill Unit" means an area of land of
which or an excavation in which solid waste is placed for permanent disposal
and which is not a land application unit, surface impoundment, injection well,
or compost pile. Permanent disposal requires the placement of daily,
intermediate, and/or final earth, synthetic, or a combination of earth and
synthetic cover over the solid waste.
(41) "Leachate Collection System" means a
system at a landfill for collection of the leachate which may percolate through
the waste and into the soils surrounding the landfill.
(42) "Liner" means a continuous layer of
natural or man-made materials beneath or on the sides of a disposal site or
disposal site cell which restricts the downward or lateral escape of solid
waste constituents, or leachate.
(43) "Liquid Waste" means any waste material
that is determined to contain "free liquids" as defined by Method 9095 (Paint
Filter Liquids Test), as described in "Test Methods for the Evaluation of Solid
Wastes, Physical/Chemical Methods" (EPA Pub. No. SW-846).
(44) "Materials Recovery Facility" means a
solid waste handling facility that provides for the extraction from solid waste
of recoverable materials, materials suitable for use as a fuel or soil
amendment, or any combination of such materials.
(45) "Monofill" means a method of solid waste
disposal that involves the landfilling of one waste type or wastes having very
similar characteristics in a segregated trench or area which is physically
separated from dissimilar or incompatible waste.
(46) "Mulch" means a product produced by
grinding, shredding or chipping of yard trimmings, land-clearing debris,
untreated and unpainted wood, or any combination thereof, that has not
undergone controlled aerobic decomposition to produce a stabilized organic
product.
(47) "Mulching" means the
grinding, shredding or chipping of yard trimmings, land-clearing debris,
untreated and unpainted wood, or any combination thereof, that has not
undergone controlled aerobic decomposition to produce a stabilized organic
product.
(48) "Municipal Solid
Waste" means any solid waste derived from households, including garbage, trash,
and sanitary waste in septic tanks and means solid waste from single-family and
multifamily residences, hotels and motels, bunkhouses, campgrounds, picnic
grounds, and day use recreation areas. The term includes yard trimmings,
construction or demolition waste, and commercial solid waste, but does not
include solid waste from mining, agricultural, or silvicultural operations or
industrial processes or operations.
(49) "Municipal Solid Waste Landfill (MSWLF)
Unit" means a discrete area of land or an excavation that receives household
waste, and that is not a land application unit, surface impoundment, injection
well, or waste pile, as those terms are defined under 40 CFR Part 257.2 . A
MSWLF unit also may receive other types of solid waste, such as commercial
solid waste, nonhazardous sludge, small quantity generator waste and industrial
solid waste. Such a landfill may be publicly or privately owned.
(50) "Municipal Solid Waste Disposal
Facility" means any facility or location where the final deposition of any
amount of municipal solid waste occurs, whether or not mixed with or including
commercial or industrial solid waste, and includes, but is not limited to,
municipal solid waste landfills and solid waste thermal treatment technology
facilities.
(51) "Municipal Solid
Waste Disposal Facility Operator" means the operator certified in accordance
with Rule
391-3-4-.18 and stationed on the
site who is in responsible charge of and has direct supervision of the daily
field operations of a municipal solid waste disposal facility to ensure that
the facility operates in compliance with the permit.
(52) "Municipal Solid Waste Landfill" means a
disposal facility where any amount of municipal solid waste, whether or not
mixed with or including commercial waste, industrial waste, nonhazardous
sludges, or small quantity generator hazardous wastes, is disposed of by means
of placing an approved cover thereon.
(53) "Open Burning" means the combustion of
solid waste without:
(a) Control of combustion
air to maintain adequate temperature for efficient combustion;
(b) Containment of the combustion reaction in
an enclosed device to provide sufficient residence time and mixing for complete
combustion; and
(c) Control of the
emission of the combustion products.
(54) "Open Dump" means a disposal facility at
which solid waste from one or more sources is left to decompose, burn or to
otherwise create a threat to human health or the environment.
(55) "Operating Records" means written
records including, but not limited to, permit applications, monitoring reports,
inspection reports, and other demonstrations of compliance with this Chapter,
which records are kept on file at the facility or at an alternative location as
approved by the Division.
(56)
"Operator" means the person(s) responsible for the overall operation of a
facility or part of a facility.
(57) "Owner" means the person(s) who owns a
facility or part of a facility.
(58) "Person" means the State of Georgia or
any other state or any agency or institution thereof, and any municipality,
county, political subdivision, public or private corporation, solid waste
authority, special district empowered to engage in solid waste management
activities, individual, partnership, association or other entity in Georgia or
any other state. This term also includes any officer or governing or managing
body of any municipality, political subdivision, solid waste authority, special
district empowered to engage in solid waste activities, or public or private
corporation in Georgia or any other state. This term also includes employees,
departments, and agencies of the federal government.
(59) "Post-closure" means a procedure
approved by the Division to provide for long- term financial assurance,
monitoring and maintenance of a solid waste disposal facility to protect human
health and the environment.
(60)
"Private Industry Solid Waste Disposal Facility" means a disposal facility
which is operated exclusively by and for a private solid waste generator for
the purpose of accepting solid waste generated exclusively by said private
solid waste generator.
(61)
"Processing Operation" means any method, system or other treatment designed to
change the physical form or chemical content of solid waste and includes all
aspects of its management (administration, personnel, land, equipment,
buildings and other elements).
(62)
"Putrescible Wastes" means wastes that are capable of being quickly decomposed
by microorganisms. Examples of putrescible wastes include but are not
necessarily limited to kitchen wastes, animal manure, offal, hatchery and
poultry processing plant wastes, dead animals, garbage and wastes which are
contaminated by such wastes.
(63)
"Qualified Groundwater Scientist" means a professional engineer or geologist
registered to practice in Georgia who has received a baccalaureate or
post-graduate degree in the natural sciences or engineering and has sufficient
training and experience in groundwater hydrology and related fields that enable
that individual to make sound professional judgments regarding groundwater
monitoring, contaminant fate and transport, and corrective action.
(64) "Radioactive Waste" means waste which
has been defined as radioactive waste in regulations promulgated by the Board
of Natural Resources, Chapter 391-3-9.
(65) "Recovered Materials" means those
materials which have known use, reuse, or recycling potential; can be feasibly
used, reused or recycled; and have been diverted or removed from the solid
waste stream for sale, use, reuse, or recycling, whether or not requiring
subsequent separation and processing.
(66) "Recovered Materials Processing
Facility" means a facility engaged solely in the storage, processing,
recycling, and resale or reuse of recovered materials. Such facility shall not
be considered a solid waste handling facility; provided, however, any solid
waste generated by such facility shall be subject to all applicable laws and
regulations relating to such solid waste.
(67) "Recycling" means any process by which
materials which would otherwise become solid waste are collected, separated, or
processed and reused or returned to use in the form of raw materials,
intermediates, or products which can be used as a substitute for products not
derived by such processes.
(68)
"Regional Landfill or Regional Solid Waste Disposal Facility" means a facility
owned by a county, municipality, or special district empowered to engage in
solid waste management activities, or any combination thereof, which serves two
or more any combination of counties, municipalities, or special solid waste
districts.
(69) "Release" means the
discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, emitting, releasing, leaking,
or placing of any substance into or on any land or water of the
state.
(70) "Relevant Point of
Compliance" is a vertical surface located at the hydraulically downgradient
limit of the waste management unit boundary that extends down into the
uppermost aquifer underlying the facility. This point will be specified by the
Director and shall be no more than 150 meters from the waste management unit
boundary and shall be located on land owned by the owner of the landfill unit.
The downgradient monitoring system must be installed at this point, and
monitoring conducted to ensure that the concentration values listed in Table 1
of Rule 391-3-4-.07
will not be exceeded in the uppermost aquifer.
(71) "Run-off" means any rainwater, leachate,
or other liquid that drains over land from any part of a facility.
(72) "Run-on" means any rainwater, leachate,
or other liquid that drains over land onto any part of a facility.
(73) "Saturated Zone" means that part of the
earth's crust in which all voids are filled with water.
(74) "Scavenge" means the unpermitted removal
of solids waste from a solid waste handling facility.
(75) "Shredding" means the process by which
solid waste is cut or torn into smaller pieces for final disposal or further
processing.
(76) "Significant
Groundwater Recharge Areas" means any area as designated on Hydrologic Atlas 18
Most Significant Ground-Water Recharge Areas of Georgia, 1989, as published by
the Georgia Geologic Survey, Environmental Protection Division, Georgia
Department of Natural Resources, unless an applicant for a solid waste handling
permit or other interested party can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the
Director that an area designated on Hydrologic Atlas 18 is or is not, in fact,
a significant groundwater recharge area.
(77) "Site" means the entire property a
permitted solid waste handling facility is located within and includes all
activities within that property.
(78) "Sludge" means any solid, semi-solid, or
liquid waste generated from a municipal, commercial, or industrial wastewater
treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control
facility exclusive of the treated effluent from a wastewater treatment
plant.
(79) "Solid Waste" means any
garbage or refuse; sludge from a wastewater 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, and agricultural operations and
from community activities, but does not include recovered materials; post-use
plastics and nonrecycled feedstock that are subsequently processed using a
pyrolysis or gasification to fuels and chemicals process; solid or dissolved
materials in domestic sewage; solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return
flows or industrial discharges that are point sources subject to permit under
33 U.S.C. Section
1342; or source, special nuclear, or
by-product material as defined by the federal Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as
amended (68 Stat. 923).
(80) "Solid
Waste Handling" means the storage, collection, transportation, treatment,
utilization, processing, or disposal of solid waste, or any combination of such
activities but does not include recovered materials processing or pyrolysis or
gasification to fuels and chemicals processes, or the holding of post-use
plastics or nonrecycled feedstock at a pyrolysis facility or gasification to
fuels and chemicals facility prior to processing at the facility where those
materials are being held to ensure production is not interrupted.
(81) "Solid Waste Handling Facility" means
any facility, the primary purpose of which is the storage, collection,
transportation, treatment, utilization, processing, or disposal, or any
combination thereof, of solid waste but does not include recovered materials
processing facilities or pyrolysis or gasification to fuels and chemicals
facilities.
(82) "Solid Waste
Handling Permit" means written authorization granted to a person by the
Director to engage in solid waste handling.
(83) "Solid Waste Management Act" or the
"Act", wherever referred to in these Rules, means the Georgia Comprehensive
Solid Waste Management Act, O.C.G.A.
12-8-20, et
seq.
(84) "Solid Waste
Thermal Treatment Technology" means any solid waste handling facility, the
purpose of which is to reduce the amount of solid waste to be disposed of
through a process of combustion, with or without the process of waste to
energy.
(85) "Solidification" means
the process of:
(a) mixing non-hazardous
liquid wastes with bulking agents in order to produce a bulked waste with a low
moisture content, or
(b) adding a
solidification/stabilization (S/S) agent to bind the liquid waste into a solid
form.
(86)
"Solidification/stabilization (S/S) agents" means binders and/or supplemental
additives that chemically react with the liquid waste, resulting in a solid
material with structural integrity where the liquid waste is bound and cannot
be separated from the solid material.
(87) "Tire" means a continuous solid or
pneumatic rubber covering designed for encircling the wheel of a motor vehicle
and which is neither attached to the motor vehicle nor a part of the motor
vehicle as original equipment.
(88)
"Transfer Station" means a facility used to transfer solid waste from one
transportation vehicle to another for transportation to a disposal facility or
processing operation.
(89)
"Uppermost Aquifer" means the geologic formation nearest the natural ground
surface that is an aquifer, as well as lower aquifers that are hydraulically
interconnected with this aquifer within the solid waste handling facility's
property boundary.
(90) "Vertical
Expansion" means the expansion of landfill beyond the approved maximum final
elevations and within the approved waste management boundaries of the existing
permit.
(91) "Waste Management Unit
Boundary" means a vertical surface located at the hydraulically downgradient
limit of the unit. This vertical surface extends down into the uppermost
aquifer.
(92) "Waste-to Energy
Facility" means a solid waste handling facility that provides for the
extraction and utilization of energy from municipal solid waste through a
process of combustion.
(93) "Yard
Trimmings" means leaves, brush, grass, clippings, shrub and tree prunings,
discarded Christmas trees, nursery and greenhouse vegetative residuals, and
vegetative matter resulting from landscaping development and maintenance other
than mining, agricultural, and silvicultural operations.
Notes
State regulations are updated quarterly; we currently have two versions available. Below is a comparison between our most recent version and the prior quarterly release. More comparison features will be added as we have more versions to compare.
No prior version found.