Unless otherwise defined in this chapter, those definitions
of words, terms, and abbreviations used in this chapter which are
defined in 25 TAC §1.132 and §133.2 (relating to Definitions)
apply. Should the definitions found in 25 TAC §1.132 change,
such changes shall prevail over the definitions found in this section.
Unless otherwise noted, all terms contained in this section shall
be defined by their plain meaning. This section contains definitions
for terms that appear throughout this chapter. Additional definitions
may appear in the specific section to which they apply. The following
words and terms, when used in this chapter, have the following meanings,
unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.
(1) Active life--The period of operation beginning
with the initial receipt of medical waste and ending at certification/completion
of closure activities in accordance with §326.71 of this title
(relating to Registration Application Contents).
(2) Affiliated facility--A health care-related facility
that generates a medical waste that is routinely stored, processed,
or disposed of on a shared basis in an integrated medical waste management
unit owned, operated by a hospital, and located within a contiguous
health care complex.
(3) Affiliated with--A person, "A," is affiliated with
another person, "B," if either of the following two conditions applies:
(A) "A" owns or controls more than 20% of the voting
interest, fair market value, profits, proceeds, or capital gains of
"B;" or
(B) "B" owns or controls more than 20% of the voting
interest, fair market value, profits, proceeds, or capital gains of
"A."
(4) Buffer zone--A zone free of medical waste processing
and storage activities within and adjacent to a facility boundary
(registration boundary) on property owned or controlled by the owner
or operator of the facility.
(5) Collection--The act of removing waste (or materials
that have been separated for the purpose of recycling) for transport
elsewhere.
(6) Commence physical construction--The initiation
of physical on-site construction on a site for which an application
to authorize a medical waste management facility is pending, the construction
of which requires approval of the commission. Construction of actual
facility and necessary appurtenances requires approval of the commission,
but other features not specific to medical waste management are allowed
without commission approval.
(7) Compacted waste--Waste that has been reduced in
volume by a collection vehicle or other means with the exception of
waste that has been reduced in volume by a small, in-house compactor
device owned and/or operated by the generator of the waste.
(8) Conditionally exempt small quantity generator--A
person that generates no more than 220 pounds of hazardous waste in
a calendar month.
(9) Container--Any portable device in which a material
is stored, transported, or processed.
(10) Contaminated water--Water that has come into contact
with waste.
(11) Discharge--Includes deposit, conduct, drain, emit,
throw, run, allow to seep, or otherwise release, or to allow, permit,
or suffer any of these acts or omissions.
(12) Facility--All contiguous land and structures,
other appurtenances, and improvements on the land used for the storage
or processing of medical waste.
(13) Garbage--Solid waste consisting of putrescible
animal and vegetable waste materials resulting from the handling,
preparation, cooking, and consumption of food, including waste materials
from markets, storage facilities, handling, and sale of produce and
other food products.
(14) Generator--Any person, by site or location, that
produces medical waste to be shipped to any other person, or whose
act or process produces a medical waste or first causes it to become
regulated.
(A) Small quantity generator (SQG)--A medical waste
generator that produces 50 pounds or less per month of medical waste.
(B) Large quantity generator (LQG)--A medical waste
generator that produces more than 50 pounds per month of medical waste.
(15) Hazardous waste--Any solid waste identified or
listed as a hazardous waste 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 of 1976,
42 United States Code, §§6901 et
seq., as amended.
(16) Incinerator of Hospital/medical/infectious waste--Any
device that combusts any amount of hospital waste and/or medical/infectious
waste as defined under §113.2070(15) of this title (relating
to Definitions).
(17) Incineration--The process of burning special waste
from health care-related facilities in an incinerator as defined in
Chapter 101 of this title (relating to General Air Quality Rules)
under conditions in conformance with standards prescribed in Chapter
111 of this title (relating to Control of Air Pollution from Visible
Emissions and Particulate Matter).
(18) Industrial solid waste--Solid waste resulting
from or incidental to any process of industry or manufacturing, or
mining or agricultural operations.
(19) Inert material--A natural or man-made non-putrescible,
non-hazardous material that is essentially insoluble, usually including,
but not limited to, soil, dirt, clay, sand, gravel, brick, glass,
concrete with reinforcing steel, and rock.
(20) License--
(A) A document issued by an approved county authorizing
and governing the operation and maintenance of a medical waste facility
used to process or store medical waste, other than hazardous waste,
in an area not in the territorial limits or extraterritorial jurisdiction
of a municipality.
(B) An occupational license as defined in Chapter 30
of this title (relating to Occupational Licenses and Registrations).
(21) Liquid waste--Any waste material that is determined
to contain "free liquids" as defined by United States Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Method 9095 (Paint Filter Test), as described
in "Test Methods for Evaluating Solid Wastes, Physical/Chemical Methods"
(EPA Publication Number SW-846).
(22) Manifest--The waste shipping document originated
and signed by the generator or offeror in accordance with §326.53(b)(8)
and (9) of this title (relating to Transporters) and any other applicable
requirements under 49 Code of Federal Regulations §172.202.
(23) Medical waste--Treated and untreated special waste
from health care-related facilities that is comprised of animal waste,
bulk blood, bulk human blood, bulk human body fluids, microbiological
waste, pathological waste, and sharps as those terms are defined in
25 TAC §1.132 (relating to Definitions) from the sources specified
in 25 TAC §1.134 (relating to Application), as well as regulated
medical waste as defined in 49 Code of Federal Regulations §173.134(a)(5),
except that the term does not include medical waste produced on a
farm or ranch as defined in 34 TAC §3.296(f) (relating to Agriculture,
Animal Life, Feed, Seed, Plants, and Fertilizer), nor does the term
include artificial, nonhuman materials removed from a patient and
requested by the patient, including, but not limited to, orthopedic
devices and breast implants. Health care-related facilities do not
include:
(A) single or multi-family dwellings; and
(B) hotels, motels, or other establishments that provide
lodging and related services for the public.
(24) Municipal hazardous waste--Any municipal solid
waste or mixture of municipal solid wastes that has been identified
or listed as a hazardous waste by the administrator of the United
States Environmental Protection Agency.
(25) Municipal solid waste--Solid waste resulting from
or incidental to municipal, community, commercial, institutional,
and recreational activities, including garbage, rubbish, ashes, street
cleanings, dead animals, abandoned automobiles, and all other solid
waste other than industrial solid waste.
(26) New medical waste management facility--A medical
waste facility that has not begun construction.
(27) Notification--The act of filing information with
the commission for specific solid waste management activities that
do not require a permit or a registration, as determined by this chapter.
(28) Nuisance--Waste that is stored, processed, or
disposed of in a manner that causes the pollution of the surrounding
land, the contamination of groundwater or surface water, the breeding
of insects or rodents, or the creation of odors adverse to human health,
safety, or welfare. A nuisance is further set forth in Texas Health
and Safety Code, Chapters 341 and 382; Texas Water Code, Chapter 26;
and any other applicable regulation or statute.
(29) On-site--Medical waste managed on property that
is owned or effectively controlled by one entity and that is within
75 miles of the point of generation or generated at an affiliated
facility shall be considered to be managed on-site.
(30) Operate--To conduct, work, run, manage, or control.
(31) Operating hours--Those hours which the facility
is open to receive waste, process, and transport waste or material.
(32) Operating record--All plans, submittals, and correspondence
for a medical waste facility required under this chapter; required
to be maintained at the facility or at a nearby site acceptable to
the executive director.
(33) Operation--A medical waste site or facility is
considered to be in operation from the date that waste is first received
or deposited at the medical waste site or facility until the date
that the site or facility is properly closed in accordance with this
chapter.
(34) Operator--The person(s) responsible for operating
the facility or part of a facility.
(35) Owner--The person that owns a facility or part
of a facility.
(36) Permit--See the definition of permit contained
in §3.2 of this title (relating to Definitions).
(37) Physical construction--The first placement of
permanent construction on a site, such as the pouring of slab or footings,
the installation of piles, the construction of columns, the laying
of underground pipework, or any work beyond the stage of excavation.
Physical construction does not include land preparation, such as clearing,
grading, excavating, and filling; nor does it include the installation
of roads and/or walkways. Physical construction includes issuance
of a building or other construction permit, provided that permanent
construction commences within 180 days of the date that the building
permit was issued.
(38) Pollutant--Contaminated dredged spoil, solid waste,
contaminated incinerator residue, sewage, sewage sludge, munitions,
chemical wastes, or biological materials discharged into water.
(39) Pollution--The man-made or man-induced alteration
of the chemical, physical, biological, or radiological integrity of
an aquatic ecosystem.
(40) Processing--Activities including, but not limited
to, the extraction of materials, transfer, volume reduction, conversion
to energy, or other separation and preparation of solid waste for
reuse or disposal, including the treatment or neutralization of waste,
designed to change the physical, chemical, or biological character
or composition of any waste to neutralize such waste, or to recover
energy or material from the waste, or render the waste safer to transport,
store, dispose of, or make it amenable for recovery, amenable for
storage, or reduced in volume.
(41) Public highway--The entire width between property
lines of any road, street, way, thoroughfare, bridge, public beach,
or park in this state, not privately owned or controlled, if any part
of the road, street, way, thoroughfare, bridge, public beach, or park
is opened to the public for vehicular traffic, is used as a public
recreational area, or is under the state's legislative jurisdiction
through its police power.
(42) Putrescible medical waste--Medical waste that
contains organic matter capable of being decomposed by microorganisms
and of such a character and proportion as to cause odors or gases
or are capable of providing food for or attracting birds, animals,
and disease vectors.
(43) Recycling--A process by which materials that have
served their intended use or are scrapped, discarded, used, surplus,
or obsolete are collected, separated, or processed and returned to
use in the form of raw materials in the production of new products.
(44) Registration--The act of filing information with
the commission for review and approval for specific solid waste management
activities that do not require a permit, as determined by this chapter.
(45) Regulated hazardous waste--A solid waste that
is a hazardous waste as defined in 40 Code of Federal Regulations
(CFR) §261.3 and that is not excluded from regulation as a hazardous
waste under 40 CFR §261.4(b), or that was not generated by a
conditionally exempt small quantity generator.
(46) Rubbish--Non-putrescible solid waste (excluding
ashes), consisting of both combustible and noncombustible waste materials.
Combustible rubbish includes paper, rags, cartons, wood, excelsior,
furniture, rubber, plastics, brush, or similar materials; noncombustible
rubbish includes glass, crockery, tin cans, aluminum cans, and similar
materials that will not burn at ordinary incinerator temperatures
(1,600 degrees Fahrenheit to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit).
Cont'd... |
