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TITLE 30ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
PART 1TEXAS COMMISSION ON ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY
CHAPTER 326MEDICAL WASTE MANAGEMENT
SUBCHAPTER AGENERAL INFORMATION
RULE §326.3Definitions

  (47) Run-off--Any rainwater or other liquid that drains over land from any part of a facility.

  (48) Run-on--Any rainwater or other liquid that drains over land onto any part of a facility.

  (49) Site--Same as facility.

  (50) Site operating plan--A document that provides general instruction for facility management and operating personnel throughout the operating life of the facility in a manner consistent with the engineer's design and the commission's regulations to protect human health and the environment and prevent nuisances.

  (51) Solid waste--Garbage, rubbish, refuse, sludge from a wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility, and other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semi-solid, or contained gaseous material resulting from industrial, municipal, commercial, mining, and agricultural operations and from community and institutional activities. The term does not include:

    (A) solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage, or solid or dissolved material in irrigation return flows, or industrial discharges subject to regulation by permit issued under Texas Water Code, Chapter 26;

    (B) soil, dirt, rock, sand, and other natural or man-made inert solid materials used to fill land if the object of the fill is to make the land suitable for the construction of surface improvements; or

    (C) waste materials that result from activities associated with the exploration, development, or production of oil or gas or geothermal resources and other substance or material regulated by the Railroad Commission of Texas under Texas Natural Resources Code, §91.101, unless the waste, substance, or material results from activities associated with gasoline plants, natural gas liquids processing plants, pressure maintenance plants, or repressurizing plants and is hazardous waste as defined by the administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the federal Solid Waste Disposal Act, as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, as amended (42 United States Code, §§6901 et seq.).

  (52) Source-separated recyclable material--Recyclable material from those health care-related facilities as listed in 25 TAC §1.134 (relating to Application), that at the point of generation has been separated, collected, and transported separately from medical waste, or transported in the same vehicle as medical waste, but in separate containers or compartments.

  (53) Storage--The keeping, holding, accumulating, or aggregating of medical waste at the end of which the medical waste is processed, disposed, or stored elsewhere.

    (A) Pre-collection--that storage by the generator, normally on the generator's premises, prior to initial collection;

    (B) Post-collection transporter--that storage by a transporter while the medical waste is in transit. Any vehicle inactivity such as not continuing a collection route for a period less than 72 hours is considered a temporary storage period. Exceeding 72 hours of temporary storage will require the operator to obtain a medical waste registration per Subchapter F of this chapter (relating to Operations Requiring a Registration);

    (C) Post-collection processor--that storage by a processor at a processing facility while the waste is awaiting processing or transfer to another storage, disposal, or recovery facility.

  (54) Surface water--Surface water as included in water in the state.

  (55) Tank--A stationary device, designed to contain an accumulation of waste, which is constructed primarily of non-earthen materials (e.g., wood, concrete, steel, and plastic) that provide structural support.

  (56) Transfer station--A facility used for transferring medical waste from collection vehicles to long-haul vehicles (one transportation unit to another transportation unit). It is not a storage facility such as one where individual residents can dispose of their wastes in bulk storage containers that are serviced by collection vehicles.

  (57) Transportation unit--A truck, trailer, open-top box, enclosed container, rail car, piggy-back trailer, ship, barge, or other transportation vehicle used to contain medical waste being transported from one geographical area to another.

  (58) Transporter--A person that collects, conveys, or transports medical waste; does not include a person transporting his or her household waste.

  (59) Trash--Same as "Rubbish."

  (60) Treatment--Same as "Processing."

  (61) Uncompacted waste--Any waste that is not a liquid or a sludge, has not been mechanically compacted by a collection vehicle, has not been driven over by heavy equipment prior to collection, or has not been compacted prior to collection by any type of mechanical device other than small, in-house compactor devices owned and/or operated by the generator of the waste.

  (62) Unloading areas--Areas designated for unloading, including all storage areas, and other processing areas.

  (63) Vector--An agent, such as an insect, snake, rodent, bird, or animal capable of mechanically or biologically transferring a pathogen from one organism to another.

  (64) Water in the state--Groundwater, percolating or otherwise, lakes, bays, ponds, impounding reservoirs, springs, rivers, streams, creeks, estuaries, marshes, inlets, canals, the Gulf of Mexico inside the territorial limits of the state, and all other bodies of surface water, natural or artificial, inland or coastal, fresh or salt, navigable or non-navigable, and including the beds and banks of all watercourses and bodies of surface water, that are wholly or partially inside or bordering the state or inside the jurisdiction of the state.

  (65) Waters of the United States--All waters that are currently used, were used in the past, or may be susceptible to use in interstate or foreign commerce, including all waters that are subject to the ebb and flow of the tide, with their tributaries and adjacent wetlands, interstate waters and their tributaries, including interstate wetlands; all other waters such as intrastate lakes, rivers, streams (including intermittent streams), mudflats, sandflats, and wetlands, the use, degradation, or destruction of which would affect or could affect interstate or foreign commerce including any such waters that are or could be used by interstate or foreign travelers for recreational or other purposes; from which fish or shellfish are or could be taken and sold in interstate or foreign commerce; that are used or could be used for industrial purposes by industries in interstate commerce; and all impoundments of waters otherwise considered as navigable waters; including tributaries of and wetlands adjacent to waters identified in this paragraph.

  (66) Wetlands--As defined in Chapter 307 of this title (relating to Texas Surface Water Quality Standards).


Source Note: The provisions of this §326.3 adopted to be effective May 26, 2016, 41 TexReg 3697

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