HBA-MPM C.S.H.B. 3749 76(R)BILL ANALYSIS


Office of House Bill AnalysisC.S.H.B. 3749
By: Dukes
Environmental Regulation
4/13/1999
Committee Report (Substituted)



BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE 

Currently, there are landfills in Texas which contain unspecified amounts
of industrial hazardous waste.  C.S.H.B. 3749 requires the Texas National
Resource Conservation Commission to mandate owners of certain closed
municipal solid waste facilities to take remedial action as necessary and
to the extent practicable to prevent or minimize the release of industrial
solid waste so that it does not migrate or have the potential to migrate in
the event of a release or threatened release into the environment. 

RULEMAKING AUTHORITY

It is the opinion of the Office of House Bill Analysis that this bill does
not expressly delegate any additional rulemaking authority to a state
officer, department, agency, or institution. 

SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS

SECTION 1.  Amends Subchapter C, Chapter 361, Health and Safety Code, by
adding Section 361.118, as follows: 

Sec. 361.118.  REMEDIAL ACTION REGARDING INDUSTRIAL SOLID WASTE DISPOSED OF
IN MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE LANDFILL FACILITY.  (a)  Makes this section
applicable only to a municipal solid waste landfill facility for which the
Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commission (TNRCC) has issued a permit
and a portion of which has been used for the disposal of more than 15,000
barrels of industrial solid waste, is closed, and is the subject of a
notice regarding the former use of the property recorded in the real
property records of the county in which the facility is located. 

(b)  Requires TNRCC to require the owner of a closed facility to take
remedial action as necessary and to the extent practicable to prevent or
minimize the release of industrial solid waste so that it does not migrate
or have the potential to migrate in the event of a release or threatened
release into the environment. 

(c)  Requires a facility owner to develop a remedial action plan and to
obtain a major amendment to the permit for the facility approving the plan
if TNRCC requires the owner to take remedial action under Subsection (b). 

SECTION 2.  Effective date:  September 1, 1999.

SECTION 3.  Emergency clause. 

COMPARISON OF ORIGINAL TO SUBSTITUTE

C.S.H.B. 3749 changes the caption of the original from "relating to the
cleanup of municipal solid waste facilities which contain industrial
hazardous waste" to "relating to remedial actions regarding industrial
solid waste disposed of in certain municipal solid waste facilities." 

C.S.H.B. 3749 differs from the original bill by replacing SECTION 1 with
completely new text, as set forth above in the section-by-section analysis.
SECTION 1 of the original required TNRCC, by  rule, to require all owners
of a landfill to exhume all industrial hazardous waste and deposit it in a
facility conforming to current statutes and regulations, if the facility
contains more than 500 barrels of industrial hazardous waste, was built
before lining requirements, and has references to the industrial hazardous
waste in its dead filing documents.   

C.S.H.B. 3749 deletes SECTION 2 of the original, regarding authorization of
certain courts and certain county or state attorneys to issue injunctions
and initiate action if a facility is in violation of the proposed section. 

Furthermore, the substitute removes the rulemaking authority granted to
TNRCC in SECTION 1 of the original. 

SECTIONS 2 (effective date) and 3 (emergency clause) of the substitute are
redesignated from SECTIONS 3 and 4 of the original.