Waste Management 2011 Annual Report Download - page 91

The primary United States federal statutes affecting our business are summarized below:
‰The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, as amended, regulates handling, transporting and
disposing of hazardous and non-hazardous waste and delegates authority to states to develop programs to
ensure the safe disposal of solid waste. In 1991, the EPA issued its final regulations under Subtitle D of
RCRA, which set forth minimum federal performance and design criteria for solid waste landfills. These
regulations are typically implemented by the states, although states can impose requirements that are
more stringent than the Subtitle D standards. We incur costs in complying with these standards in the
ordinary course of our operations.
‰The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act of 1980, as amended, which is
also known as Superfund, provides for federal authority to respond directly to releases or threatened releases of
hazardous substances into the environment that have created actual or potential environmental hazards.
CERCLA’s primary means for addressing such releases is to impose strict liability for cleanup of disposal sites
upon current and former site owners and operators, generators of the hazardous substances at the site and
transporters who selected the disposal site and transported substances thereto. Liability under CERCLA is not
dependent on the intentional disposal of hazardous substances; it can be based upon the release or threatened
release, even as a result of lawful, unintentional and non-negligent action, of hazardous substances as the term
is defined by CERCLA and other applicable statutes and regulations. Liability may include contribution for
cleanup costs incurred by a defendant in a CERCLA civil action or by an entity that has previously resolved its
liability to federal or state regulators in an administrative or judicially-approved settlement. Liability under
CERCLA could also include obligations to a PRP that voluntarily expends site clean-up costs. Further, liability
for damage to publicly-owned natural resources may also be imposed. We are subject to potential liability
under CERCLA as an owner or operator of facilities at which hazardous substances have been disposed and as
a generator or transporter of hazardous substances disposed of at other locations.
‰The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1972, known as the Clean Water Act, regulates the discharge of
pollutants into streams, rivers, groundwater, or other surface waters from a variety of sources, including solid
and hazardous waste disposal sites. If run-off from our operations may be discharged into surface waters, the
Clean Water Act requires us to apply for and obtain discharge permits, conduct sampling and monitoring, and,
under certain circumstances, reduce the quantity of pollutants in those discharges. In 1990, the EPA issued
additional standards for management of storm water runoff that require landfills and other waste-handling
facilities to obtain storm water discharge permits. In addition, if a landfill or other facility discharges
wastewater through a sewage system to a publicly-owned treatment works, the facility must comply with
discharge limits imposed by the treatment works. Also, before the development or expansion of a landfill can
alter or affect “wetlands,” a permit may have to be obtained providing for mitigation or replacement wetlands.
The Clean Water Act provides for civil, criminal and administrative penalties for violations of its provisions.
‰The Clean Air Act of 1970, as amended, provides for increased federal, state and local regulation of the
emission of air pollutants. Certain of our operations are subject to the requirements of the Clean Air Act,
including large municipal solid waste landfills and large municipal waste-to-energy facilities. Standards
have also been imposed on manufacturers of transportation vehicles (including waste collection vehicles).
In 1996 the EPA issued new source performance standards and emission guidelines controlling landfill
gases from new and existing large landfills. In January 2003, the EPA issued Maximum Achievable
Control Technology standards for municipal solid waste landfills subject to the new source performance
standards. These regulations impose limits on air emissions from large municipal solid waste landfills,
subject most of our large municipal solid waste landfills to certain operating permit requirements under
Title V of the Clean Air Act and, in many instances, require installation of landfill gas collection and
control systems to control emissions or to treat and utilize landfill gas on- or off-site.
The EPA has issued new source performance standards and emission guidelines for large and small
municipal waste-to-energy facilities, which include stringent emission limits for various pollutants based
on Maximum Achievable Control Technology standards. These sources are also subject to operating
permit requirements under Title V of the Clean Air Act. The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to review
and revise the MACT standards applicable to municipal waste-to-energy facilities every five years.
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