Legislative Affairs Committee
Chair: VACANT
The Legislative Affairs Committee monitors legislation that may affect the New Mexico environmental industry. To volunteer or obtain more information, contact our Legislative Affairs Committee chairperson at .
For more information about the New Mexico State Legislature and any proposed/enacted legislation, visit www.legis.state.nm.us.
February 2007 News
Barry Birch, CHMM
NMED Solid Waste Bureau
NMED Has a New Deputy Secretary
Governor Bill Richardson appointed Cindy Padilla as deputy secretary of the NMED. Padilla previously
served as NMED's Water and Waste Management Division Director. Padilla and NMED Secretary Ron Curry
previously worked together for the city of Santa Fe when Curry was city manager and Padilla was solid waste director.
Governor Richardson also appointed Deputy Secretary Derrith Watchman-Moore as intergovernmental policy adviser and communications officer Jon Goldstein as NMED Water and Waste Management Division Director.
Surface Protection Act Could Resurface in this Year's Session
During last years legislative session, environmental and agriculture groups backed a bill, the Surface
Owners Protection Act, to compensate landowners for damage from oil and gas activities. Under state and federal
law, oil and gas companies don't have to notify private landowners before they drill and are under no obligation to
pay for any damage due to drilling activities. In New Mexico, landowners often don't own the oil, gas or hard
rock mineral rights on their private land. About 2,100 new oil and gas well permits are issued a year on both public
and private land, according to the New Mexico Cattle Growers' Association. We will see if this bill surfaces
again in this year's legislative session.
Renewable Energy Bill Is Also Under Consideration
House Bill (HB) 189, introduced by Representative José A. Campos, would create a Renewable
Transmission Authority (House Bill [HB] 189) would allow New Mexico to generate and export solar, wind and other
renewable energy. New Mexico Energy, Minerals, and Natural Resources Department Secretary Joanna Prukop
has voiced her support for the bill, "The Renewable Energy Transmission Authority will expand New
Mexico's energy industry, generate economic development and move New Mexico forward in becoming the clean
energy state." This law would allow the development of a renewable energy generation and export industry,
increase in-state electric system infrastructure reliability, and proactively pursue statewide electric transmission
capital improvement planning.
Update on New Manifest and Other Topics
Debbie Finfrock, PE
NMSHMM Director-at-Large
The new uniform hazardous waste manifest will need to be used for all hazardous waste shipments starting September 5, 2006. The following is a list of approved printers of the manifest that are selling them to the public.
J.J. Keller and Associates 877-564-2333 www.jjkeller.com/manifest The Flesh Company 800-745-7910 Welsh & Associates 317-894-8100 www.welsh-associates.com Genoa Business Forms 815-981-8126 www.form8700-22.com The Allied Group 800-556-6310x3227 Nutmeg Environmental 203-915-3769 www.nutmegenv.com
The Printer's National Environmental Assistance Center (PNEAC) has made available on their website a short flash video training that provides basic guidance on use of the new manifest form. To access this training, visit http://www.pneac.org/hazwastemanifest/ and click on the "Image of Training Video."
Cathode ray tubes (CRTs) and processed glass removed from CRTs sent for recycling are conditionally excluded from the definition of solid waste (40 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] Parts 261.4 and 261.39, 261.40, 261.41). Disposed CRTs are still considered a solid waste. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration published revised definitions of “hazmat employee” and “hazmat employer”; replaced the term “exemption” with “special permit”; and modified shipping paper retention requirements in December (49 CFR 171). A correction and further explanation of these changes were published in the Federal Register at 71 FR 44929 (August 8).
The EPA is accepting proposals for their targeted watersheds implementation project for FY07. See the target watersheds grant web page www.epa.gov/twg/. The EPA issued a guidance document for implementing the methyl mercury water quality criterion, which is fish-tissue based (40 CFR 131.11(a)(2)).
New From EPA
RCRA Guide Available
The EPA has developed a "user-friendly" reference to assist the in understanding current Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) hazardous waste generator requirements. To obtain a copy of this document, visit the following EPA web site link: www.epa.gov/epaoswer/osw/gen-trans/tool.pdf.
July 2006 News
Debbie Finfrock, PE
Committee Chair
As of June 12, oil and gas exploration, production, processing, and treatment facilities are exempt from the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit requirements for stormwater discharges (see Code of Federal Regulations at 40 CFR 122). The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed an amendment to its NPDES permit requirements to exempt water transfers from one "waters of the United States" to another without intermediate use. Comments are due July 24, 2006 on these proposed revisions to 40 CFR 122 (see the EPA web site at www.epa.gov).
Effective August 7, 2006, Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) reporting is transitioning to using North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes from the former US-only Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) industry codes. The TRI reports due on July 1, 2007 for the 2006 calendar year will use these codes to determine which industries are required to report releases (40 CFR 372). Anyone wishing to print and distribute the new national uniform hazardous waste manifests required for hazardous waste shipments after September 5, 2006, may now register with the EPA (40 CFR 262.21). On May 23, the EPA proposed a more flexible "performance-based" approach for college and university laboratories to comply with the hazardous waste regulations. Comments will be accepted until August 21 on these proposed revisions to 40 CFR 261 and 262, Subpart K (see the EPA web site at www.epa.gov).
March 2006 News
Debbie Finfrock, PE
Committee Chair
Regulatory Update
70 Federal Register (FR) 72480 provided notice of the 2005 revised Priority List of 275 Hazardous Substances under Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA). Ten substances on the 2003 list were replaced with two new substances and eight substances previously under consideration. The FR Notice gave no Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) reference for the list.
71 FR 654 issued new National Primary Drinking Water Regulations, called the Long Term 2 Enhanced Surface Water Treatment Rule for public water systems that use surface water sources. It is intended to reduce microbial levels, particularly Cryptosporidium, offset by the risk of disinfection byproducts. This final rule affects 40 CFR 141 and 142.
EPA proposed a replacement Multi-Sector General Permit for Stormwater Discharges from Industrial Activities in 70 FR 72116 for Regions 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, and 10. There are 29 categories of industrial activities covered (40 CFR 124.15). 71 FR 894 proposes an exemption from NPDES stormwater permit requirements for oil and gas field activities, including construction (40 CFR 122.26).
November 2005
Debbie Finfrock
Committee Chair
There were a lot of new regulations proposed and issued in September and October for hazardous waste generators and toxic chemical users. On September 9, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a standardized permit for Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) treatment, storage, and disposal facilities (TSDFs) that generate and store or non-thermally treat hazardous waste on-site in tanks, containers, and containment buildings.
On October 4, the Environmental Protection Agency issued additional headworks exemptions for industrial wastewater treatment plants by adding benzene and 2-ethoxyethanol to the list of solvents whose mixtures with wastewaters are exempt from definition as a RCRA hazardous waste. For industrial wastewater that is discharged to a publicly owned treatment works (POTW), pretreatment requirements were streamlined on October 14. Some of these requirements allow waivers from sampling for pollutants that are not present at a facility, permit using best management practices (BMPs) for pretreatment instead of numerical limits, and increases flexibility in sampling techniques.
In addition, the comment period for adding diisononyl phthalate to the list of Emergency Planning and Community Right-To-Know Act (EPCRA) toxic chemicals was extended on September 12. On October 4, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a reduction on the burden of preparing Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) reports by increasing the threshold for allowing a simple Form A certification statement for some non-Persistent Bioaccumulative and Toxic (non-PBT) chemicals.
September 2005
Debbie J. Finfrock, PE
Committee Chair
On August 16, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued proposed guidelines for analysis of biological pollutants in wastewater and sludge. Mercury-containing equipment was added to the list of Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) Universal Wastes on August 5. Methyl ethyl ketone (MEK) was deleted from the list of Section 313 chemicals requiring reporting under Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) and Section 6607 of the Pollution Prevention Act on June 30. A new U.S. Department of Transportation definition of a "person who offers" a hazardous material for transportation in commerce was added July 28th to clarify the hazardous material regulations (49 CFR 171).
August 2005 News
New Mexico Supreme Court Decision
Steve Hattenbach, Rodey Law Firm
On July 18, the New Mexico Supreme Court issued a groundbreaking decision requiring the New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) to consider public testimony about a solid waste facility's adverse impact on a community's quality of life when permitting the facility (Albuquerque Journal, 7-19-05). The case, Colonias Development Council v. Rhino Environmental Services, Inc., concerned a proposed landfill near the largest colonias in the state. Colonias are low income, recent immigrant communities, with inadequate public infrastructure, such as potable water. NMED determined that community concerns about social and psychological effects were not relevant to granting or denying the permit. The court disagreed and remanded the case back to NMED for a new public hearing to consider these impacts, including the cumulative impact of proliferation of industrial sites and solid waste facilities in the community. This decision comes just weeks after NMED itself proposed to consider environmental justice issues in the newly proposed solid waste regulations. (NM Business Weekly, 7-8-05; Albuquerque Journal, 7-27-05).
June 2005 News
Regulatory Update
The U.S. Department of Transportation is proposing to revise its regulations for infectious waste packaging to comply with international recommendations (70 Federal Register [FR] 29169, May 19, 2005). The 2003 Toxics Release Inventory report, released May 11, showed a six percent decrease in toxic chemicals released to the environment. The U.S. Department of Energy intends to prepare an environmental impact statement for Greater than Class C low-level radioactive waste disposal, in order to identify additional disposal pathways (70 FR 24775, May 11, 2005).
May 2005 News
2005 Legislative Session Bill Summary
The following are the bills that were passed by the 2005 Legislative Session and
signed by the Governor that may be of interest to environmental professionals.
Final versions of these bills are available on the Legislature web site at
legis.state.nm.us. There were only a couple of bills dealing with hazardous
materials and waste – the Recycling and Illegal Dumping Act (S142), which
creates a statewide recycling alliance, permits tire recyclers and prohibits
excessive tire storage, and provides for abatement of illegal dumpsites. More
details, visit
legis.state.nm.us/Sessions/05%20Regular/final/SB0142.pdf. H93
raised Pesticide Control Act fees and H1035 eliminated the Pesticide Advisory
Review Board.
Water bills included the creation of a Strategic Water Reserve (S123/H195) that allows the Interstate Stream Commission to purchase water rights (not create new rights) for the State to use in meeting interstate stream compacts and protecting threatened and endangered species. H123 provided $2 million in matching funds for federal Safe Drinking Water Act projects. About 50 water and wastewater projects financed by the New Mexico Finance Authority (NMFA) were funded in S54 and H 271; the latter provided funds for the Middle Rio Grande endangered species collaboration program for water and refugium projects in Bernalillo County. Ten percent of the NMFA fund was allocated to the State Engineer for water rights adjudication in H1110. S879 created an Albuquerque-Bernalillo County water utility authority consisting of the mayor, three city councilors, and three county commissioners.