Part I. Definitions and Program Administration
9VAC20-170-10. Definitions.
The following words and terms when used in this chapter shall have the following meanings unless the context clearly indicates otherwise:
"Affiliated company" means (i) any company that directly or indirectly owns, controls, or holds, with power to vote, 10% or more of the outstanding voting securities of a pure captive insurer or (ii) any company of which 10% or more of the voting securities are directly or indirectly owned, controlled, or held, with power to vote, by a parent, subsidiary, or associated company.
"Anniversary date" means the date of issuance of a financial mechanism.
"Applicant" means any and all persons seeking or holding a permit required under this chapter.
"Associated company" means any company in the same corporate system with a pure captive insurer.
"Association captive insurer" means any insurer transacting the business of insurance and reinsurance only on risks, hazards, and liabilities of the members of an insurance association.
"Beneficial use" means both instream and offstream uses of state waters. Instream beneficial uses include, but are not limited to, the protection of fish and wildlife habitat, maintenance of waste assimilation, recreation, navigation, and cultural and aesthetic values. Offstream beneficial uses include, but are not limited to, domestic (including public water supply), agricultural, electric power generation, commercial and industrial uses. Public water supply uses for human consumption shall be considered the highest priority.
"Board" means the Virginia Waste Management Board.
"Bodily injury" means the death or injury of any person incident to a waste deposit from a vessel, but not including any death, disablement, or injuries covered by workers' compensation, disability benefits or unemployment compensation law or other similar law. Bodily injury may include payment of medical, hospital, surgical, and funeral expenses arising out of the death or injury of any person. This term shall not include those liabilities that, consistent with standard insurance industry practices, are excluded from coverage in liability insurance policies for bodily injury.
"Captive insurer" means any pure captive insurer or any association captive insurer.
"Certificant" means an owner or operator who has been issued a Certificate of Financial Responsibility under this chapter.
"Certificate applicant" means an owner or operator who has applied for a Certificate of Financial Responsibility or for the renewal of a Certificate of Financial Responsibility under this chapter.
"Certificate of Financial Responsibility" or "certificate" means a Certificate of Financial Responsibility issued under Part VI (9VAC20-170-270 et seq.) of this chapter, unless otherwise indicated.
"Certified copy" means a legible copy certified as accurate by a notary public or other person authorized to take oaths in the United States.
"CFR" means Code of Federal Regulations.
"Charter by demise" means to hire for exclusive use through a lease.
"Closure" means the act of securing a solid waste management facility pursuant to the requirements of this chapter.
"Commercial transport" means transportation for the purposes of commercial carriage of solid wastes or regulated medical wastes as cargo.
"Commercial transporter" means any person who transports for the purposes of commercial carriage of solid wastes or regulated medical wastes as cargo.
"Construction demolition debris waste" or "CDD waste" means solid waste that is produced or generated during construction or destruction, remodeling, or repair of pavements, houses, commercial buildings, their foundations and other structures. Construction demolition debris wastes include, but are not limited to lumber, wire, sheetrock, broken brick, shingles, glass, pipes, concrete, paving materials, and metal and plastics if the metal or plastics are a part of the materials of construction or empty containers for such materials. Paints, coatings, solvents, asbestos, any liquid, compressed gases or semi-liquids and garbage are not construction demolition debris wastes.
"Container" means any watertight structure that meets the provisions of this chapter.
"Containment and cleanup" means abatement, containment, removal and disposal of solid wastes or regulated medical wastes that have been deposited to state waters or adjoining shorelines, and the restoration of the environment to its existing state prior to a deposit of the wastes.
"Demise charterer" means a person with whom the owner of the vessel enters into a demise charter. The charterer takes over all possession and control of the vessel from the owner of the vessel and becomes subject to the duties and responsibilities of ownership. The charterer is also responsible for directing the operations of the vessel and providing the master and crew.
"Department" means the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality.
"Destination facility" means a facility that treats, disposes of, or recycles solid wastes or regulated medical wastes in accordance with applicable federal and state regulations.
"Director" means the Director of the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality or an authorized representative.
"Disclosure statement" means a sworn statement or affirmation, in such form as may be required by the director, which includes:
1. The full name and business address of all key personnel;
2. The full name and business address of any entity, other than a natural person, that collects, transports, treats, stores, or disposes of solid waste or hazardous waste in which any key personnel holds an equity interest of 5.0% or more;
3. A description of the business experience of all key personnel listed in the disclosure statement;
4. A listing of all permits or licenses required for the collection, transportation, treatment, storage or disposal of solid waste or hazardous waste issued to or held by any key personnel within the past 10 years;
5. A listing and explanation of any notices of violation, prosecutions, administrative orders (whether by consent or otherwise), license or permit suspensions or revocations, or enforcement actions of any sort by any state, federal or local authority, within the past 10 years, that are pending or have concluded with a finding of violation or entry of a consent agreement, regarding an allegation of civil or criminal violation of any law, regulation or requirement relating to the collection, transportation, treatment, storage or disposal of solid waste or hazardous waste by any key personnel, and an itemized list of all convictions within 10 years of key personnel of any of the following crimes punishable as felonies under the laws of the Commonwealth or the equivalent thereof under the laws of any other jurisdiction: murder; kidnapping; gambling; robbery; bribery; extortion; criminal usury; arson; burglary; theft and related crimes; forgery and fraudulent practices; fraud in the offering, sale, or purchase of securities; alteration of motor vehicle identification numbers; unlawful manufacture, purchase, use or transfer of firearms; unlawful possession or use of destructive devices or explosives; violation of the Drug Control Act, Chapter 34 (§ 54.1-3400 et seq.) of Title 54.1 of the Code of Virginia; racketeering; or violation of antitrust laws;
6. A listing of all agencies outside the Commonwealth that have regulatory responsibility over the applicant or have issued any environmental permit or license to the applicant within the past 10 years in connection with the applicant's collection, transportation, treatment, storage, or disposal of solid waste or hazardous waste;
7. Any other information about the applicant and the key personnel that the director may require that reasonably relates to the qualifications and abilities of the key personnel or the applicant to lawfully and competently operate a solid waste management facility in Virginia; and
8. The full name and business address of any member of the local governing body or planning commission in which the solid waste management facility is located or proposed to be located, who holds an equity interest in the facility.
"Existing facility" means any receiving facility that is constructed prior to July 2, 2003.
"Generator" means any person, by site, whose act or process produces solid wastes or regulated medical wastes, or whose act first causes solid wastes or regulated medical wastes to become subject to this chapter.
"Insurance association" means any group of individuals, corporations, partnerships, associations, or governmental units or agencies whose members collectively own, control, or hold with power to vote all of the outstanding voting securities of an association captive insurer.
"Key personnel" means the applicant itself and any person employed by the applicant in a managerial capacity, or empowered to make discretionary decisions, with respect to the solid waste or hazardous waste operations of the applicant in Virginia, but shall not include employees exclusively engaged in the physical or mechanical collection, transportation, treatment, storage, or disposal of solid or hazardous waste and such other employees as the director may designate by regulation. If the applicant has not previously conducted solid waste or hazardous waste operations in Virginia, the term also includes any officer, director, partner of the applicant, or any holder of 5.0% or more of the equity or debt of the applicant. If any holder of 5.0% or more of the equity or debt of the applicant or of any key personnel is not a natural person, the term includes all key personnel of that entity, provided that where such entity is a chartered lending institution or a reporting company under the Federal Security and Exchange Act of 1934, the term does not include key personnel of such entity. Provided further that the term means the chief executive officer of any agency of the United States or of any agency or political subdivision of the Commonwealth, and all key personnel of any person, other than a natural person, that operates a landfill or other facility for the disposal, treatment or storage of nonhazardous solid waste under contract with or for one of those governmental entities.
"Leachate" means a liquid that has passed through or emerged from solid waste or regulated medical waste and contains soluble, suspended, or miscible materials from such waste. Leachate and any material with which it is mixed is solid waste; except that leachate that is pumped from a collection tank for transportation to disposal in an off-site facility is regulated as septage, and leachate discharged into a wastewater collection system is regulated as industrial wastewater.
"Load Line Certificate" means a certificate issued by the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) or other similarly qualified organizations authorized by the Secretary of Transportation (U.S. Department of Transportation) to the owner of the vessel, in accordance with 46 USC Chapter 51.
"Manifest" means the shipping document originated and signed by the generator in accordance with the provisions of this chapter. For transportation of regulated medical wastes, the hazardous materials shipping paper requirements under 49 CFR Part 172 Subpart C may be reflected in the manifest.
"Medical waste" or "regulated medical waste" means solid wastes defined to be regulated medical wastes by Part II of the Regulated Medical Waste Management Regulations (9VAC20-121). Solid waste packaged as regulated medical waste is regulated medical waste. Medical wastes that have been sterilized, treated or incinerated in accordance with the Regulated Medical Waste Management Regulations (9VAC20-121) are no longer considered as regulated medical waste.
"Navigable waters of the Commonwealth" means state water being used or susceptible of being used, in its natural and ordinary condition, as a highway for commerce, on which trade and travel are or may be conducted in the customary modes of trade and travel on water.
"New facility" means any receiving facility that is constructed on or after July 2, 2003.
"Odors" means any emissions that cause an odor objectionable to individuals of ordinary sensibility.
"Operator" means, in the case of a receiving facility, any person responsible for the overall operation of a receiving facility that handles solid wastes or regulated medical wastes. In the case of a vessel, it means any person who operates, charters by demise, rents or otherwise exercises control over or responsibility for a vessel.
"Owner" means, in the case of a receiving facility, any person who owns a receiving facility or part of a receiving facility that handles solid wastes or regulated medical wastes as cargo for hire. In the case of a vessel, it means any person who owns a vessel or a part of a vessel that transports solid wastes or regulated medical wastes as cargo for hire.
"Parent" means a corporation, partnership, governmental unit or agency, or individual who directly or indirectly owns, controls or holds, with power to vote, more than 50% of the outstanding voting securities of a pure captive insurer.
"Permit by rule" means provisions including public participation of this chapter stating that a facility or activity is deemed to have a permit if it meets the requirements of the provision.
"Person" means an individual, trust, firm, joint stock company, corporation including a government corporation, partnership, association, any state or agency thereof, municipality, county, town, commission, political subdivision of a state, any interstate body, consortium, joint venture, commercial entity, the government of the United States or any unit or agency thereof.
"Property damage" means the loss or destruction of, or damage to, the property of any third party including any loss, damage or expense incident to a waste deposit from a vessel. This term shall not include those liabilities that, consistent with standard insurance industry practices, are excluded from coverage in liability insurance policies for property damage.
"Provider of financial responsibility" means an entity that provides financial responsibility to an owner and operator of a vessel transporting solid wastes or regulated medical wastes through one of the mechanisms listed in 9VAC20-170-310, including a financial institution, surety, or issuer of a letter of credit.
"Public vessel" means a vessel that is owned or demise chartered and operated by the United States government or a government of a foreign country and that is not engaged in commercial service.
"Pure captive insurer" means any insurer transacting the business of insurance and reinsurance only on risks, hazards, and liabilities of its parent, subsidiary companies of its parent, and associated and affiliated companies.
"Receiving facility" means a facility, vessel or operation that loads or off-loads solid wastes or regulated medical wastes transported upon the navigable waters of the Commonwealth by a commercial transporter.
"Solid waste" means any garbage, refuse, sludge and other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semisolid or contained gaseous material, resulting from industrial, commercial, mining and agricultural operations, or community activities but does not include (i) materials regulated as hazardous wastes under the Virginia Hazardous Waste Management Regulations (9VAC20-60); (ii) scrap metal, dredged material, recyclable construction demolition debris being transported directly to a processing facility for recycling or reuse and source-separated recyclables; (iii) solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage; (iv) solid or dissolved material in irrigation return flows or in industrial discharges that are sources subject to a permit from the State Water Control Board; or (v) source, special nuclear, or byproduct material as defined by the Federal Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended.
"State waters" means all water, on the surface and under the ground, wholly or partially within or bordering the Commonwealth or within its jurisdiction.
"Subsidiary company" means any corporation of which 50% or more of the outstanding voting securities are directly or indirectly owned, controlled, or held, with power to vote, by a parent or by a company that is a subsidiary of the parent.
"Surface water" means any water in the Commonwealth, except ground water as defined in § 62.1-255 of the Code of Virginia.
"Transport" or "transportation" means any movement of solid wastes or regulated medical wastes, and any packing, loading, unloading or storage incidental thereto.
"USC" means the U.S. Code.
"Vehicle" means any motor vehicle, rolling stock or other artificial contrivance for transport whether self-propelled or otherwise, except vessels.
"Vessel" includes every description of watercraft or other contrivance used as a means of transporting on water, whether self-propelled or otherwise, and shall include barges and tugs.
"Waste deposit" or "deposit of waste" means any solid waste or regulated medical waste from a vessel or a receiving facility that is placed, discharged, spilled, dropped, or leaked into state waters or adjoining shorelines.
Statutory Authority
§§ 10.1-1402 and 10.1-1454.1 of the Code of Virginia.
Historical Notes
Derived from Virginia Register Volume 19, Issue 19, eff. July 2, 2003; amended, Virginia Register Volume 26, Issue 11, eff. March 3, 2010; Volume 40, Issue 5, eff. November 22, 2023.
9VAC20-170-20. Purpose.
This chapter establishes standards and procedures pertaining to the commercial transport, loading and off-loading of solid wastes or regulated medical wastes upon the navigable waters of the Commonwealth to the extent allowable under state law in order to protect the public health, safety and welfare, and to protect the environment and natural resources from pollution, impairment or destruction.
Statutory Authority
§§ 10.1-1402 and 10.1-1454.1 of the Code of Virginia.
Historical Notes
Derived from Virginia Register Volume 19, Issue 19, eff. July 2, 2003.
9VAC20-170-30. Applicability.
A. This chapter applies to each owner and/or operator of a vessel transporting solid wastes or regulated medical wastes for the purposes of commercial carriage as cargo, and each owner or operator of a receiving facility. This chapter also applies to the receiving facilities and vessels transporting solid wastes or regulated medical wastes upon the navigable waters of the Commonwealth to the extent allowable under state law.
B. This chapter does not apply to a public vessel as defined under 9VAC20-170-10, the owner and operator of a public vessel, vessels transporting solid wastes or regulated medical wastes incidental to their predominant business or purposes, vessels transporting solid wastes or regulated medical wastes generated during normal operations of the vessel, solid wastes or regulated medical wastes generated during the normal operations of the vessel, and solid wastes excluded or conditionally exempted pursuant to 9VAC20-81-95 of the Solid Waste Management Regulations.
Statutory Authority
§§ 10.1-1402 and 10.1-1454.1 of the Code of Virginia.
Historical Notes
Derived from Virginia Register Volume 19, Issue 19, eff. July 2, 2003; amended, Volume 27, Issue 22, eff. August 3, 2011.
9VAC20-170-40. Relationship to other regulations.
A. The Solid Waste Management Regulations (9VAC20-81) prescribe requirements for the solid waste management facilities in general. While a facility utilized to receive solid wastes or regulated medical wastes transported, loaded, or unloaded upon the navigable waters of the Commonwealth, to the extent allowable under state law, by a commercial transporter is a solid waste management facility, this chapter herein prescribes specific requirements, including siting, design/construction, operation, and permitting, for this type of facilities. If there is any overlapping requirement between these two regulations, whichever is more stringent shall apply.
B. The Regulated Medical Waste Management Regulations (9VAC20-121) address special needs for regulated medical waste management. A facility utilized to receive regulated medical waste transported, loaded, or unloaded upon the navigable waters of the Commonwealth, to the extent allowable under state law, by a commercial transporter is a regulated medical waste facility and it must conform to any applicable sections of the Regulated Medical Waste Management Regulations adopted by the board. If there is any overlapping requirement between these two regulations, whichever is more stringent shall apply.
C. This chapter does not exempt any receiving facility from obtaining a Virginia Water Protection Permit as required by the Virginia Water Protection Permit Program Regulation (9VAC25-210), whenever it is applicable.
Statutory Authority
§§ 10.1-1402 and 10.1-1454.1 of the Code of Virginia.
Historical Notes
Derived from Virginia Register Volume 19, Issue 19, eff. July 2, 2003; amended, Volume 27, Issue 22, eff. August 3, 2011; Volume 40, Issue 5, eff. November 22, 2023.
9VAC20-170-50. Enforcement, inspections, and right of entry.
A. Any person violating any requirement of this chapter, except for those enforced by the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Coast Guard, is liable for a civil penalty of not more than $25,000 per violation. Each day of a continuing violation is a separate violation.
B. The owner or operator of a receiving facility or a vessel shall allow the director or his designee, upon presentation of appropriate credentials or other documents as may be required by law, to:
1. Enter at reasonable times upon any premises where a regulated facility or activity is located or conducted, or where records must be kept under the provisions of this chapter;
2. Have access to and copy, at reasonable times, any records that must be kept under the provisions of this chapter;
3. Inspect at reasonable times any facilities, equipment, practices, or operations regulated or required under the provisions of this chapter; and
4. Sample or monitor at reasonable times, for the purposes of assuring compliance with the provisions of this chapter.
C. The regulations of the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Coast Guard are enforced by those federal agencies. Information on possible violations of federal rules will be referred to the federal agency for enforcement.
Statutory Authority
§§ 10.1-1402 and 10.1-1454.1 of the Code of Virginia.
Historical Notes
Derived from Virginia Register Volume 19, Issue 19, eff. July 2, 2003.
9VAC20-170-60. Delegation of authority.
The director may perform any act of the board provided under this chapter, except as limited by § 10.1-1405 of the Code of Virginia.
Statutory Authority
§§ 10.1-1402 and 10.1-1454.1 of the Code of Virginia.
Historical Notes
Derived from Virginia Register Volume 19, Issue 19, eff. July 2, 2003.