House Bill No. 486

Introduced By _______________________________________________________________________________



A Bill for an Act entitled: "An Act eliminating certain underground pipes from the definition of "underground storage tank" in the hazardous waste and underground storage tank laws; amending section

75-10-403, MCA; and providing an immediate effective date."



Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Montana:



Section 1.  Section 75-10-403, MCA, is amended to read:

"75-10-403.   Definitions. Unless the context requires otherwise, in this part, the following definitions apply:

(1)  "Board" means the board of environmental review provided for in 2-15-3502.

(2)  "Department" means the department of environmental quality provided for in 2-15-3501.

(3)  "Dispose" or "disposal" means the discharge, injection, deposit, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any regulated substance or hazardous waste into or onto the land or water so that the regulated substance, hazardous waste, or any constituent of the regulated substance or hazardous waste may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any waters, including ground water.

(4)  "Environmental protection law" means a law contained in or an administrative rule adopted pursuant to Title 75, chapter 2, 5, 10, or 11.

(5)  "Facility" or "hazardous waste management facility" means all contiguous land and structures, other appurtenances, and improvements on the land used for treating, storing, or disposing of hazardous waste. A facility may consist of several treatment, storage, or disposal operational units.

(6)  "Generation" means the act or process of producing waste material.

(7)  "Generator" means any person, by site, whose act or process produces hazardous waste or whose act first causes a hazardous waste to become subject to regulation under this part.

(8)  (a) "Hazardous waste" means a waste or combination of wastes that, because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics, may:

(i)  cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness; or

(ii) pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, or disposed of or otherwise managed.

(b)  Hazardous wastes do not include those substances governed by Title 82, chapter 4, part 2.

(9)  "Hazardous waste management" means the management of the collection, source separation, storage, transportation, processing, treatment, recovery, and disposal of hazardous wastes.

(10) "Hazardous waste transfer facility" means any land, structure, or improvement, including loading docks, parking areas, holding sites, and other similar areas, used for the transfer and temporary storage of hazardous wastes and where shipments of hazardous waste are temporarily held for a period of 10 days or less during the normal course of transportation up to but not including the point of ultimate treatment, storage, or disposal.

(11) "Manifest" means the shipping document that is originated and signed by the generator and that is used to identify the hazardous waste and its quantity, origin, and destination during its transportation.

(12) "Person" means the United States, an individual, firm, trust, estate, partnership, company, association, corporation, city, town, local governmental entity, or any other governmental or private entity, whether organized for profit or not.

(13) "Regulated substance":

(a)  means:

(i)  a hazardous substance as defined in 75-10-602; or

(ii) petroleum, including crude oil or any fraction of crude oil, that is liquid at standard conditions of temperature and pressure (60 degrees F and 14.7 pounds per square inch absolute);

(b)  does not include a substance regulated as a hazardous waste under this part.

(14) "Storage" means the actual or intended containment of regulated substances, hazardous wastes, or both, either on a temporary basis or for a period of years.

(15) "Transportation" means the movement of hazardous wastes from the point of generation to any intermediate points and finally to the point of ultimate storage or disposal.

(16) "Transporter" means a person engaged in the offsite transportation of hazardous waste by air, rail, highway, or water.

(17) "Treatment" means a method, technique, or process, including neutralization, designed to change the physical, chemical, or biological character or composition of any hazardous waste so as to neutralize the waste or so as to render it nonhazardous, safer for transportation, amenable for recovery, amenable for storage, or reduced in volume.

(18) "Underground storage tank":

(a)  means, except as provided in subsections (18)(b)(i) through (18)(b)(xi)(xii):

(i)  any one or a combination of tanks used to contain a regulated substance, the volume of which is 10% or more beneath the surface of the ground; and

(ii) any underground pipes used to contain or transport a regulated substance and connected to a storage tank, whether the storage tank is entirely aboveground, partially aboveground, or entirely underground;

(b)  does not include:

(i)  a farm or residential tank that was installed as of April 27, 1995, that has a capacity of 1,100 gallons or less, and that is used for storing motor fuel for noncommercial purposes;

(ii) a farm or residential tank that was installed as of April 27, 1995, that has a capacity of 1,100 gallons or less, and that is used for storing heating oil for consumptive use on the premises where it is stored;

(iii) farm or residential underground pipes that were installed as of April 27, 1995, and that are used to contain or to transport motor fuels for noncommercial purposes or heating oil for consumptive use on the premises where it is stored from an aboveground storage tank with a capacity of 1,100 gallons or less;

(iv) a septic tank;

(v)  a pipeline facility, including gathering lines, regulated under:

(A)  the Natural Gas Pipeline Safety Act of 1968, 49 U.S.C. 1671, et seq.;

(B)  the Hazardous Liquid Pipeline Safety Act of 1979, 49 U.S.C. 2001, et seq.; or

(C)  state law comparable to the provisions of law referred to in subsection (18)(b)(v)(A) or (18)(b)(v)(B), if the facility is intrastate;

(vi) a surface impoundment, pit, pond, or lagoon;

(vii) a storm water or wastewater collection system;

(viii) a flow-through process tank;

(ix) a liquid trap or associated gathering lines directly related to oil or gas production and gathering operations;

(x)  a storage tank situated in an underground area, such as a basement, cellar, mine, draft, shaft, or tunnel, if the storage tank is situated upon or above the surface of the floor; or

(xi) any pipe connected to a tank described in subsections (18)(b)(i) through (18)(b)(ix); or

(xii) underground pipes connected to an above ground storage tank at a petroleum refinery that is subject to facility-wide corrective action permit provisions under 75-10-406 or the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, 42 U.S.C. 6901 through 6987, as amended.

(19) "Used oil" means any oil that has been refined from crude oil or any synthetic oil, either of which has been used and as a result of that use is contaminated by physical or chemical impurities."



NEW SECTION. Section 2.  Coordination instruction. If House Bill 152 is passed and approved, and if it deletes the definition of "underground storage tank" from 75-10-403, and adopts it in a recodified underground storage tank act, then the amendment to the definition made in [section 1] is made to that definition in House Bill 152.



NEW SECTION. Section 3.  Effective date. [This act] is effective on passage and approval.

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