Can a private activity wastewater pretreatment facility be financed with tax-exempt bonds?
A private activity wastewater, pretreatment facility may be financed with tax-exempt bonds only if it is deemed functionally related and subordinate to a government-owned sewage system. Sewage disposal facilities are defined as property used for the collection, storage, treatment, utilization, processing or final disposal of sewage.
Which wastes are excluded from hazardous waste regulation?
Wastes Excluded from Hazardous Waste Regulation Solid Wastes Which Are Not Hazardous Was ... CFR Citation for the Exclusion Household Hazardous Waste §261.4 (b) (1) Agricultural Waste §261.4 (b) (2) Mining Overburden §261.4 (b) (3) Fossil Fuel Combustion Waste (Bevill) §261.4 (b) (4) 13 more rows ...
What are the specific exclusions to the definition of solid waste?
Specific exclusions to the definition of solid waste are listed in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) at 40 CFR section 261.4 (a). Many of these exclusion are related to recycling. Materials that do not meet this definition are not solid wastes and are not subject to RCRA regulation.
What is the purpose of the hazardous waste exemption?
The exemption was designed specifically to avoid duplicative requirements under RCRA and the CWA for the management of certain hazardous wastes.
What about industrial waste? Can public wastewater treatment plants really remove all of those toxic chemicals?
Commercial and industrial waste is not sent directly to public wastewater treatment plants, because the public wastewater treatment system cannot effectively remove all of the contaminants. Wastewater from commercial and industrial processes is usually divided into the following four categories and dealt with accordingly:
How do Cities Treat Wastewater, to Make it Safe for Discharge?
There are several levels of wastewater treatment; these are primary, secondary and tertiary levels of treatment. Most municipal wastewater treatment facilities use primary and secondary levels of treatment, and some also use tertiary treatments. The type and order of treatment may vary from one treatment plant to another, but this diagram of the Ottawa-Carleton wastewater treatment plant illustrates the basic components.
Who is Responsible for Making Sure that Wastewater is Treated Properly?
Similar to drinking water provisions, the federal government has delegated responsibility for wastewater treatment to the provinces and territories. There are two federal acts, however, that may apply to wastewater. The Fisheries Act prohibits the release of harmful substances into waters that fish live in. The Canadian Environmental Protection Act governs the release of toxic substances into the environment and allows the federal government to develop regulations for the use of toxic substances.
How to reduce pressure on septic system?
Following some water conservation practices can greatly reduce pressure on your septic system. For more information about conserving water, see the fact sheet about Water Consumption. Here are a few things that you can do to care for your septic system: 1 Do not use your drain or toilet as a garbage disposal; avoid putting dental floss, diapers, coffee grounds and paper towel down the drain, as they can clog up your septic system. 2 Spread your loads of laundry out over the week. When too much water is added to the septic tank, it does not have time to treat wastes, and you could be flooding your drainfield with wastewater. 3 Plant grass on your drainfield, but keep trees and shrubs away from it, because roots can clog the system and cause damage. 4 Do not drive on your drainfield, because this can compact the soil and damage the septic system components.
Why is oxygen important in wastewater treatment?
The oxygen helps the bacteria to digest the pollutants faster. The water is then taken to settling tanks where the sludge again settles, leaving the water 90 to 95 percent free of pollutants. The picture below shows the settling tanks in the Winnipeg Wastewater Treatment Plant.
How is sludge treated?
The sludge that is removed from the settling tanks and the scum that is skimmed off the top during the primary steps are treated separately from the water. Anaerobic bacteria (anaerobic bacteria do not require oxygen) feed off of the sludge for 10 to 20 days at temperatures around 38 degrees Celsius. This process decreases the odour and organic matter of the sludge, and creates a highly combustible gas of methane and carbon dioxide, which can be used as fuel to heat the treatment plant. Finally, the sludge is sent to a centrifuge, like the one shown in the picture below. A centrifuge is a machine that spins very quickly, forcing the liquid to separate from the solid. The liquid can then be processed with the wastewater and the solid is used as fertilizer on fields.
Why do cities dump raw sewage?
Some cities choose to dump raw sewage into the oceans and rivers, because it is cheaper than effective treatment . A report published by Sierra Legal found that, of 22 Canadian cities, Victoria, Dawson City, Montreal, Saint John, Halifax and St. John’s dump some or all of their raw sewage directly into water bodies. While not all of the sewage is dumped directly into the oceans, these six cities produce 400 million litres of raw sewage each day! Montreal dumps around 3.6 billion litres of raw sewage into the St. Lawrence River each year, and Victoria is the only large Canadian city to dump all of its waste into the ocean without any attempt to improve the system. The city of Victoria dumps more than 34 billion litres of raw sewage into waterways each year, and still claims that their actions are not harming the environment! Halifax and St. John’s have plans to construct wastewater treatment facilities, but in the meantime, are still discharging 65.7 billion litres and 33 billion litres, respectively, of raw sewage into the Atlantic Ocean. For more information about water pollution, see the Water Pollution fact sheet, or the Operation Water Pollution lesson plans and resources.
Why are some materials excluded from solid waste?
These materials are excluded for a variety of reasons, including public policy, economic impacts, regulation by other laws, lack of data, or impracticability of regulating the waste. The decision to exclude the following materials from the solid waste definition is a result ...
What is considered solid waste?
A solid waste is any material that is discarded by being: 1 Abandoned: The term abandoned means thrown away. A material is abandoned if it is disposed of, burned, incinerated, or sham recycled. 2 Inherently Waste-Like: Some materials pose such a threat to human health and the environment that they are always considered solid wastes; these materials are considered to be inherently waste-like. Examples of inherently waste-like materials include certain dioxin-containing wastes. 3 A Discarded Military Munition: Military munitions are all ammunition products and components produced for or used by the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) or U.S. Armed Services for national defense and security. Unused or defective munitions are solid wastes when:#N#abandoned (i.e., disposed of, burned, incinerated) or treated prior to disposal;#N#rendered nonrecyclable or nonusable through deterioration; or#N#declared a waste by an authorized military official.#N#Used (i.e., fired or detonated) munitions may also be solid wastes if collected for storage, recycling, treatment, or disposal. 4 Recycled in Certain Ways: A material is recycled if it is used or reused (e.g., as an ingredient in a process), reclaimed, or used in certain ways (used in or on the land in a manner constituting disposal, burned for energy recovery, or accumulated speculatively). Specific exclusions to the definition of solid waste are listed in the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) at 40 CFR section 261.4 (a). Many of these exclusion are related to recycling.
What is a Solid Waste?
State regulatory requirements for generators may be more stringent than those in the federal program. Be sure to check your state's policies.
What is RCRA hazardous waste?
Materials regulated by RCRA are known as “solid wastes.”. Only materials that meet the definition of solid waste under RCRA can be classified as hazardous wastes, which are subject to additional regulation. EPA developed detailed regulations that define what materials qualify as solid wastes and hazardous wastes.
Why are there exclusions in RCRA?
EPA selected other exclusions to provide an incentive to recycle certain materials, because there was not enough information on the material to justify its regulation as a solid or hazardous waste, or because the material was already subject to regulation under another statute.
What is the purpose of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act?
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), passed in 1976, created the framework for America’s hazardous and non-hazardous waste management programs. Materials regulated by RCRA are known as “solid wastes.”.
What is considered abandoned material?
A material is abandoned if it is disposed of, burned, incinerated, or sham recycled. Inherently Waste-Like: Some materials pose such a threat to human health and the environment that they are always considered solid wastes; these materials are considered to be inherently waste-like.
Who are the Regulated Hazardous Waste Transporters?
Subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) defines a hazardous waste transporter as any person engaged in the off-site transportation of the hazardous waste within the United States. Off-site transportation of hazardous waste includes shipments from a hazardous waste generator’s facility or property to another facility for treatment, storage, or disposal (TSDF).
What is the EPA hazardous waste manifest system?
EPA’s hazardous waste manifest system is designed to track hazardous waste from the time it leaves the generator facility where it was produced, until it reaches the off-site waste management facility that will store, treat or dispose of the hazardous waste. The manifesting responsibilities vary depending on the mode of transportation (highway, water, rail or air).
How long can hazardous waste be stored without a permit?
A hazardous waste transporter may hold waste without a storage permit in containers at a transfer facility for 10 days or less as long as the waste is manifested and kept in U.S. DOT specification containers. Storage in stationary containers is prohibited unless the transfer facility has a RCRA permit or interim status.
What is the exemption from manifest requirements for SQGs?
This exemption is intended to facilitate the recycling of small quantities of hazardous wastes that are transported in a protective manner.
How long can hazardous waste be stored?
A hazardous waste transporter may hold waste without a storage permit in containers at a transfer facility for 10 days or less as long as the waste is manifested and kept in U.S. DOT specification containers. Storage in stationary containers is prohibited unless the transfer facility has a RCRA permit or interim status.
Why is a manifest needed for hazardous waste?
Because hazardous waste is also regulated by the DOT under its hazardous materials laws, the Manifest was developed to meet both EPA’s requirements for a manifest, and DOT’s requirements for "shipping papers.".
What is an EPA ID number?
Obtaining an EPA Identification (ID) Number. EPA keeps track of hazardous waste transporters by requiring each transportation company to obtain an EPA ID number. A transporter is forbidden from transporting hazardous waste if they do not have an ID number. Unlike generator EPA ID numbers, which are site-specific, ...
What is considered solid waste?
“Solid waste” for this purpose is defined as garbage, refuse, and other discarded solid materials including solid waste materials resulting from industrial, commercial and agricultural operations and from communities activities, but does not include solids or dissolved materials in domestic sewage or other significant pollutants in water resources, such as silt, dissolved or suspended solids in industrial wastewater effluents, dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or other common water pollutants. The solid waste must be useless, unused, unwanted or discarded solid material that has no market or other value at the place where it is located. If a person is willing to remove such property at his own expense, but is not willing to purchase such property at its location at any price, such material is treated as waste. The material may be valuable in the hands of the recycler, but retains its classification as waste if it was valueless in its original location, taking collection and transportation costs in account.
Who has power to enter into leases of project or contracts with respect to the use of project with private persons, firms?
Resource recovery department authorities also have power to enter into leases of project or contracts with respect to the use of project with private persons, firms and corporation. Thus, all or any part of the use of a project may be transferred to private parties, enabling private-public partnerships for solid waste disposal and reclamation facilities.
What is a resource recovery development authority?
The Resource Recovery Development Authorities Law and the Regional Solid Waste Management Authorities Law are two similar pieces of legislation creating in each city or county authorities denominated either a resource recovery development authority or a solid waste management authority. Such authorities have power to issue revenue bonds to finance projects for the collection, transportation, management, storage, treatment, utilization, processing or final disposal of solid waste, or the conversion of solid waste or resources contained therein into steam, electricity, oil, charcoal, gas or other products or energy sources, including any property used in connection with the facility for the extraction, collection, storage, treatment, processing, utilization or final disposal of resources contained in solid waste. Such authorities also have power to finance any property used in the extraction, collection, storage, treatment, processing or utilization of water resources and the conversion of such resources into any useful form of energy. A resource recovery development authority expressly authorizes projects similar to those described above for the sewage sledge. A solid waste management authority or a resource recovery development authority can be activated jointly or on a regional basis by any number of cities or counties.
What is tax exempt bond?
Tax-exempt bond financing is available for certain water and sewage, solid waste disposal/recovery project, waste-to-energy projects, and wastewater treatment projects. Bond financing may be available for public, private and public-private partnership projects. Bonds might be issued directly by a city or a county for government-owned project pursuant to Georgia’s Revenue Bond Law. A privately owned and operated project might be financeable through Georgia’s Development Authorities Law. A government-owned project or a public-private partnership project might be financed with Georgia’s Resource Recovery Development Authorities Law or Georgia’s Regional Solid Waste Management Authorities Law. In order for the bonds to be issued to qualify for tax-exemption, additional requirements will apply. This memorandum provides a brief overview.
Can a government recycling facility be tax exempt?
Although any governmental recycling and waste-to-energy project may be financeable with tax-exempt bonds, there are limitation on the types of private activity projects that qualify for tax-exempt financing. A facility that disposes of solid waste by reconstituting, converting or otherwise recycling it into material which is not waste is financeable on a tax-exempt basis as a solid waste disposal facility only so long as the solid waste constitutes at least 65% by weight or volume of the total materials introduced into the recycling process. A recycling facility will not fail to qualify for tax-exempt financing only because it operates at a profit. However, private activity facilities that further process saleable waste-derived products into finished products are not financeable with tax-exempt solid waste bonds (although they might be financeable as tax-exempt manufacturing bonds — See our “Overview of Private Activity Bonds and Incentives). If the facility has both a solid waste disposal function and another function, only the portion of the cost of the property allocable to the solid waste disposal function may be financed with tax-exempt solid waste bonds. For example, metals and glass can be separated from solid waste and then further sorted, sized, cleaned and pulverized. The private activity solid waste bonds cannot be used, however, to finance facilities that would further process the saleable metal or glass into a finished product.
Is Georgia a tax exempt state?
Georgia law provides a number of issues and methods for issuing tax-exempt bonds for solid waste disposal, recovery, recycling and waste-to-energy projects, and sewage and wastewater treatment and pretreatment projects. However, if the facility is to be privately owned or substantially used in a private trade or business, special federal tax rules come into play to determine whether and to the extent the facility can be financed with tax-exempt bonds. With the proper legal structuring, however, many privately-utilized waste projects, as well as governmental projects, can be financed on a tax-exempt basis.
Is a sewage facility a tax exempt facility?
A private activity wastewater, pretreatment facility may be financed with tax-exempt bonds only if it is deemed functionally related and subordinate to a government-owned sewage system. Sewage disposal facilities are defined as property used for the collection, storage, treatment, utilization, processing or final disposal of sewage. Facilities tied directly to sewage facilities that pretreat waste, if the waste is required to be treated prior to release into the sewage system, may constitute a functionally related and subordinate facility that is financeable with tax-exempt bonds. Property is not a functionally related and subordinate to a sewage facility if it is not a character size commensurate with the character and size of the sewage facility.
Is a filter building exempt from parking?
The site or facilities should be accessible. Your new "filter building" may be exempt but any office or restrooms on site should be accessible. Perhaps restriping the parking lot is one thing & an accessible route into an existing building if it has an office or restoom. Might not be "required" just a good idea
Is there an incentive to provide accessiblity without damages?
Unfortunately, without damages there is no incentive to provide accessiblity.
Is a job description safe harbor for ADA Title III?
Job descriptions are not a safe harbor for ADA Title III.
Is there a safe harbor for Title III?
There's no safe harbor for Title III of the ADA (although the new rules will provide safe harbor for buildings which meet ADAAG 1991).
Does PA enforce ADA?
PA does not enforce ADA (a civil right law) but has adoped IBC and ANSI 117.1
Background
What Is A Solid Waste?
- RCRA states that "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, resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations, and from community activities. Nearly everything we do leaves behind some kind of waste. It is important to note tha…
Wastes Excluded from Solid Waste Regulation
- Several materials are excluded from the definition of solid waste. These materials are excluded for a variety of reasons, including public policy, economic impacts, regulation by other laws, lack of data, or impracticability of regulating the waste. The decision to exclude the following materials from the solid waste definition is a result of eithe...
Wastes Excluded from Hazardous Waste Regulation
- EPA excludes certain solid wastes from the definition of hazardous waste. If a material meets an exclusion from the definition of hazardous waste, it is not regulated as a hazardous waste, even if the material technically meets a listing or exhibits a characteristicthat would normally meet this definition. The table below contains a description of solid wastes which are excluded from the d…