Treated Wood Waste: AB 1353

Date: April 15, 2005

To: All Local Enforcement Agencies

This all LEA E-mail was sent on behalf of the LEA Support Services Branch of the California Integrated Waste Management Board (CIWMB) and Howard Levenson, Deputy Director of the Permitting and Enforcement Division.

The State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) and the Integrated Waste Management Board (IWMB) recently mailed a joint letter (Adobe PDF, 219 KB) to certain solid waste landfill owners/operators*. The letter provides information and guidance on the implementation of Assembly Bill 1353 (Matthews, Ch. 597, Stats. 2004) related to the management and disposal of treated wood waste (TWW), as defined. Successful implementation of this important recent legislation depends on the existence of adequately permitted landfills where the operators of such landfills are willing to respond to market demand for adequate disposal.

California’s Legislature passed AB 1353 in August of 2004, with large, bipartisan support. Governor Schwarzenegger signed the bill on September 20, 2004, and it became effective on January 1, 2005.

The new law, which replaced all existing hazardous waste variances for TWW granted by the Department of Toxic Substances Control, requires TWW to be disposed of in either:

1. A class I hazardous waste landfill, or
2. A composite-lined portion of a solid waste landfill unit that meets all requirements applicable to disposal of municipal solid waste in California after October 9, 1993 (i.e., is Subtitle D compliant), and that is regulated by waste discharge requirements (WDRs) issued for discharges of designated waste or TWW.

The SWRCB and the IWMB are not certain that the number of solid waste landfills currently meeting the above criteria is sufficient to accommodate the disposal demand. There are approximately seventy landfills statewide with composite-lined units, but only a small percentage of those have WDRs that allow discharge of designated waste. To help meet the demand for TWW disposal, the joint letter supplies information needed should landfill owners/operators desire to begin the process of amending WDRs to specifically allow discharge of TWW.

If you have any questions please contact Bob Holmes at (916) 341-6376.

Thank you,
Melissa Hoover-Hartwick
LEA Support Services
(916)341-6813

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