Chapter 271
2012 -- S 2395 SUBSTITUTE A AS
AMENDED
Enacted 06/19/12
A N A C T
RELATING TO
HEALTH AND SAFETY - REFUSE DISPOSAL
Introduced
By: Senators Lombardo, Lanzi,
Date Introduced: February 15, 2012
It is enacted by the
General Assembly as follows:
SECTION 1. Section 23-18.9-14 of the General Laws in Chapter
23-18.9 entitled "Refuse
Disposal" is hereby
amended to read as follows:
23-18.9-14.
Testing and analysis of air and water -- Environmental management
district.-- (a) Applicability. - This section applies to all
solid waste management
facilities/activities regulated pursuant to this chapter that are
undertaken within and in the vicinity
of an area known as the environmental management
district, located in the town of
the city of
west;
(b) On-site monitoring.
(1) The director of the
department of environmental management (DEM), in consultation
with the director of the department of health (DOH), is
authorized to promulgate any rules and
regulations that are necessary to require the development and implementation
of onsite ambient
air and water monitoring plans for all
facilities/activities covered by this section. The regulations
shall be promulgated no later than December 31, 2000, and
shall be subject to the Administrative
Procedures Act, chapter 35 of title 42. These
regulations shall, at a minimum, provide for the
following:
(i)
Define the minimum criteria that shall require the development and
implementation
of an onsite ambient air and water monitoring plan;
(ii) Establish the time
period that a facility/activity shall have to initially prepare an
onsite ambient air and water monitoring plan and submit it
to DEM for review;
(iii) Define the
minimum content that shall be included in an onsite ambient air and
water monitoring plan;
(iv)
Establish the criteria that DEM shall use for review and approval of an
onsite
ambient air and water monitoring plan;
(v) Establish the
criteria that DEM shall use for determining how long an approved
onsite ambient air and water monitoring plan must remain in
effect and the criteria for
termination of an approved onsite ambient air and water
monitoring plan; and
(vi)
Define the process for public involvement in the development and review
of onsite
ambient air and water monitoring plans.
(2) The facility shall
implement the outside ambient air and water monitoring plan within
thirty (30) days of DEM approval. Data collected under
onsite ambient air and water monitoring
plans shall be evaluated by both DEM and DOH. DOH shall
provide a written evaluation of this
data to the host community(s), the facility(s), any
oversight council or organization that focuses
on the environmental management district, and any
members of the public who request the
evaluation.
(3) Should a facility
not abide by the newly promulgated rules and regulations requiring
a party to conduct an onsite ambient air and water
monitoring plan, the director shall take
enforcement action to compel those activities. The director may,
at his or her discretion, prepare
and implement an onsite ambient air and water monitoring
plan for facilities that do not comply
with the order. The facility shall be responsible to
reimburse DEM for all costs, including interest,
incurred in developing and implementing a plan.
(c) Offsite monitoring.
- (1) If, upon the evaluation of data provided pursuant to
subsection (b), the DEM and DOH directors jointly determine that
any facility/activity is causing
emissions of air or water pollutants at levels that could cause
adverse health impacts, create
objectionable or nuisance odors, or otherwise adversely impact
human health or the environment,
either individually or in conjunction with other sources in
the surrounding community(s), the
DEM director, in consultation with the DOH director,
is authorized to require the
facility(s)/activity(s) to develop and implement offsite ambient
air and/or water monitoring plans
within the environmental management district. Regulations
governing the development and
implementation of these offsite plans shall be promulgated in
conjunction with, and subject to the
same provisions as those authorized under subsection (b).
(2) Any facility subject
to the offsite monitoring requirement shall implement the offsite
ambient air and/or water monitoring plan within thirty (30)
days of DEM approval. Data collected
under offsite ambient air and/or water monitoring plans
shall be evaluated by both DEM and
DOH. DOH shall provide a written evaluation of this data
to the host community(s), the
facility(s), any oversight council or organization that focuses
on the environmental management
district, and any members of the public who request the evaluation.
(3) Should a facility
not abide by the newly promulgated rules and regulations requiring
a party to conduct an offsite ambient air and/or water
monitoring plan, the director shall take
enforcement action to compel those activities. The director may,
at his or her discretion, prepare
and implement an offsite ambient air and/or water
monitoring plan for facilities that do not
comply with the order. That facility shall be responsible to
reimburse DEM for all costs,
including interest, incurred in developing and implementing a
plan.
(d) Ambient
monitoring. In addition to any off-site monitoring required pursuant to
subsection (c) above, Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation
shall establish and operate an
off-site ambient air monitoring network consisting of not less
than six (6) monitoring locations,
four (4) of which shall be located in Johnston and two (2)
of which shall be located in
The objective of the monitoring network shall be to
continuously monitor ambient air for the
presence of odorous contaminants from landfill gas. Wind speed
and wind direction shall also be
recorded continuously at the monitoring locations. The
locations of said monitors shall be
determined by the department of environmental management, in
consultation with the host
community of the subject monitor. The contaminants of concern
to be monitored and the
methodology of monitoring shall be determined by the department
of environmental
management, in consultation with the department of health.
Results from monitoring shall be
submitted to the department of environmental management, the
department of health, the town of
Johnston, the city of Cranston, and posted on a
publicly accessible page on the
Resource Recovery Corporation website
for reference by the public.
All costs of purchasing,
installing, and operating the monitoring network shall be paid
by
Recovery Corporation.
SECTION 2. Ambient monitoring pursuant to the act shall continue
until December 31,
2022. The director of
the department of environmental management and the director of the
department of health shall report an evaluation of all data
collected pursuant to this act to the
general assembly on or before December 31, 2020. After
evaluation of data provided pursuant to
section 23-18.9-14.1, if the director of the department of
environmental management and the
director of the department of health jointly determine that
any facility/activity is causing
emissions of air or water pollutants at levels that could cause
adverse health impacts, have created
objectionable or nuisance odors, or otherwise have adversely
impacted human health or the
environment, either individually or in conjunction with other sources
in the surrounding
community(ies), then the director of the department of
environmental management, in
consultation with the director the department of health is
authorized to require the
facility(ies)/activity(ies) to maintain
ambient monitoring until December 31, 2032 or until said
evaluation of data shows that such facility(ies)/activity(ies) would not impact human health or
environment as stated herein.
SECTION 3. This act shall take effect upon passage.
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LC01555/SUB A
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