5.03.020

(a) DEFINITIONS

Unless otherwise provided or the context requires another definition, the definitions set forth in Section 5.03.020(a) shall apply to the terms used throughout this chapter.

(1) Closure

The termination of the receiving, handling, recycling, treatment, composting, or disposal of solid wastes at a management facility. It shall include all operations necessary to prepare the management facility for post-closure maintenance.

(2) Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generators

Facilities that produce less than 100 kg (220.5 lbs.) of hazardous waste, or less than 1 kg (2.205 lbs.) of acutely hazardous waste per calendar month.

(3) Collection

The act of collecting solid wastes by a SRMT permitted Hauler.

(4) Construction

The erection or building of new structures and the acquisition, replacement, expansion, remodeling, alteration, modernization, or extension of existing structures.

(5) Director

The Director (person in charge) of the Tribe's Environment Division.

(6) Disposal

The discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, or placing of any solid waste into or on any land or water so that such solid waste or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air, or discharged into any waters, including surface waters or ground waters.

(7) Environment Division

The Division of the Tribe whose mission is to preserve, protect, restore, and enhance the community of Akwesasne for the present and future generations.

(8) Farm

A facility that raises or harvests any agricultural or horticultural commodity through the cultivation of the soil, aquaculture product or the raising, shearing, feeding, caring for, training or management of livestock, bee, poultry, fur bearing animals, fish, domestic animals or wildlife.

(9) Financial Mechanism

A trust fund or other equivalent financial arrangement acceptable to the Environment Division to provide the financial assurances required by this chapter.

(10) Floodplain

Land that would be inundated with floodwater as a result of the occurrence of a 100-year flood.

(11) Groundwater

Water below the land surface in a zone of saturation.

(12) Guidance Document

A document prepared by the Environment Division that supplements criteria under this chapter. A guidance document may provide specific technical direction regarding the manner in which an owner or operator shall comply with this chapter. Guidance documents may be referred to or attached as conditions to permits. Such technical direction must either conform to this chapter, or be more stringent. A guidance document may also provide direction as to how the Director of the Environment Division interprets the Tribe's solid waste permit program, consistent with Tribal laws and this chapter.

(13) Hauler

A person or commercial establishment that is in the business of collecting and transporting solid wastes and who has obtained a Tribal permit from the SRMT's Compliance Department ("Compliance Department").

(14) Hazardous Waste

A waste that:

(A) Because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics, may either cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or serious irreversible or incapacitating illness. It may pose a substantial present or potential hazard to human health, living organisms, or the environment when improperly handled, treated, stored, transported, or disposed of; or

(B) Is specifically defined to be hazardous or toxic, including but not limited to any substance, material, smoke, gas, particulate matter, or combination thereof. Materials containing asbestos, petroleum or its byproducts, or Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs); or

(15) Household Hazardous Waste

Chemical products such as paints, solvents or pesticides generated from normal household activities (e.g. routine house and yard maintenance).

(16) Industrial Waste

A subset of solid wastes, which are generated by manufacturing or industrial processes. Such processes may include, but are not limited to the following: electric power generation; fertilizer/agricultural chemicals; inorganic chemicals; iron and steel manufacturing; leather and leather products; nonferrous metals manufacturing/foundries; organic chemicals; plastics and resins manufacturing; pulp and paper industry; rubber and miscellaneous plastic products; stone, glass, clay and concrete products; textile manufacturing; transportation equipment; and water treatment. The forms of such wastes are exemplified by, but not limited to, liquids such as acids, alkalis, caustics, leachate, petroleum (and its derivatives), and processes or treatment wastewaters; sludges which are semi-solid substances resulting from process or treatment operations or residues from storage or use of liquids; solidified chemicals, paints or pigments; and dredge soil, foundry sand, and the end or by- products of incineration or other forms of combustion.

(17) Infectious/Medical Waste

A subset of solid wastes that include but are not limited to the following:

(A) Laboratory wastes, including but not limited to cultures of etiological agents (agents that cause diseases), which pose a substantial threat to health due to their volume and virulence.

(B) Pathological specimens, including but not limited to human or animal tissues, blood elements, excreta, and secretions that contain etiologic agents, and attendant disposable fomites.

(C) Surgical specimens, including but not limited to human or animal parts and tissues removed surgically, or at autopsy, which in the opinion of the attending physician or veterinarian, contain etiologic agents and attendant disposable fomites.

(D) Human dialysis waste materials, including but not limited to arterial lines and dialysate membranes.

(E) Carcasses of animals infected with etiological agents that may present a substantial hazard to public health if improperly managed.

(F) Equipment, instruments, utensils, or any other material that is likely to transmit etiologic agents or presents a significant danger of infection, because it is contaminated with, or may reasonably be expected to be contaminated with, etiologic agents.

(18) Inherently Waste-like Material

A material, such as dioxin-containing wastes, that is always considered a solid waste because of its intrinsic threat to human health and the environment.

(19) Liquid Waste

Waste material that contains free liquid.

(20) Management Facility

All contiguous land and structures, other appurtenances, and improvements on the land used for the management of solid wastes.

(21) Municipal Solid Wastes (MSW)

A subset of solid waste that is defined as durable and non-durable goods, containers and packaging, food wastes, yard trimmings, and miscellaneous organic wastes from residential, commercial, and industrial non-process sources.

(22) MSWLF

Municipal Solid Waste Landfill.

(23) Nuisance

A condition that occurs as a result of the handling, treatment, composting, or disposal of solid waste, which

(A) is injurious to human health or is indecent or offensive to the senses and interferes with the comfortable enjoyment of life or property, and

(B) Affects an entire community or neighborhood or any considerable number of persons.

(24) 100-Year Flood

A flood that has a 1 in 100 chance of being equaled or exceeded in any one (1) year, and it has an average recurrence interval of one hundred (100) years.

(25) Open Burning

Burning of unwanted materials such as paper, trees, brush, leaves, grass, and other debris where smoke and other emissions are released directly into the air. During open burning, air pollutants do not pass through a chimney or stack

(26) Open Dump

Any management facility or site including roadways and ditches on the Reservation where Solid Waste has been disposed of, which is not a sanitary landfill or transfer station authorized under this chapter.

(27) Operator

The person(s) responsible for the overall operation of a management facility or part of a management facility.

(28) Owner

The person(s) who owns a management facility or part of a management facility.

(29) Permit

An authorization and license issued under the authority of the Compliance Department regulating the collection and transportation of MSW and/or solid waste, or regulating the treatment and disposal of MSW and/or solid waste including the construction and/or operation of a management facility.

(30) Permittee

A person, hauler, or entity who is authorized and permitted by the Compliance Department to collect and transport MSW and/or solid wastes, or to construct or operate a management facility in compliance with this chapter.

(31) Permit Documents

Permit applications, drafts and final permits, or other documents that include applicable design and management conditions in accordance with this chapter, and the technical and administrative information used to explain the basis of permit conditions, including applicable guidance documents. The unauthorized disposal of any solid waste into the air, land, surface water or groundwater.

(32) Person

Any individual, trust, firm, association, partnership, Indian Tribe, tribally chartered corporation, business, or LLC, political subdivision, government agency, industry, public or private corporation, any legal entity or private enterprise. It also includes members of the Tribe, all other non-member Indians, and all non-Indians.

(33) Pollution

The unauthorized disposal of any solid waste into the air, land, surface of the water or groundwater.

(34) Post-Closure Maintenance

All activities undertaken at a closed management facility to maintain the integrity of containment features and to monitor compliance with applicable performance standards as required under this chapter.

(35) Post-Closure Maintenance Period

A period of at least thirty (30) years after closure of a management facility, or Solid Waste Program, a period which ends only after the operator demonstrates to the satisfaction of the Director of the Environment Division that the solid waste contained in such facility no longer poses any threat to human health and the environment.

(36) RCRA (Resource Conservation and Recovery Act)

An Environmental Protection Agency policy, which regulates the generation, transportation and storage of solid and hazardous waste recovery.

(37) Recovery

The reclamation of material, byproducts, or energy from solid waste.

(38) Recycling

The process of separating and collecting solid wastes, their subsequent transformation or remanufacture into usable or marketable products or materials, and the purchase of products made from materials that have already been used in some form.

(39) Reuse

The process of reusing solid wastes for the same purpose that it was originally designed, or using it for a different purpose.

(40) Regulated Hazardous Waste

In RCRA § 1004(5), Congress defined hazardous waste as a solid waste, or combination of solid wastes, which because of its quantity, concentration, or physical, chemical, or infectious characteristics may:

(A) Cause, or significantly contribute to, an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible, or incapacitating reversible, illness; or

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

(41) Removal

The act of taking solid waste from the place of generation or storage, either by an approved collection agency or by the owner of the solid waste.

(42) Reservation

Reservation means both the Saint Regis Mohawk Indian Tribe Reservation as established by the 1796 Treaty with the Seven Nations of Canada (7 Stat. 55) and any other lands over which the Tribe exercises jurisdiction now or in the future.

(43) Rules and Regulations

Any policies promulgated by the Environment Division, and adopted by the Tribal Council, regulating the collection, transportation or disposal of solid waste on the Reservation, which will implement, supplement or regulate any provisions of this chapter.

(44) Sanitary Landfill

A disposal facility employing a method of disposing of solid waste on land, without creating nuisances, pollution or hazards to public health or safety, by using methods to confine the solid waste to the smallest practical area, to reduce it to the smallest practical volume, and to cover it with a layer of suitable cover material at specific designated intervals. A MSWLF under this chapter is a sanitary landfill.

(45) Sewage Sludge

A subset of solid wastes that includes any residue, excluding grit or screenings, removed from wastewater, whether in a dry, semi-dry, or liquid form.

(46) Sludge

A sub-set of solid waste that may be solid, semi-solid, or liquid waste generated from a commercial, or industrial wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility, exclusive of the treated effluent from a wastewater treatment plant.

(47) Special Wastes

A subset of solid wastes, which is listed in Section 5.03.040(b) of this chapter.

(A) Radioactive wastes.

(B) All regulated hazardous wastes as defined by RCRA.

(D) Animals or bedding exposed to infectious agents.

(E) Bulk quantities of infectious-type wastes which have been in contact with: blood, blood products and body fluids are handled by Indian Health Services (IHS) through a qualified vendor for disposal.

(F) Any materials containing friable asbestos waste.

(G) Sewage or sewage sludge wastes.

(H) Bulk liquids of any kind.

(I) Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs).

(J) Explosives.

(K) Hazardous waste generated from small quantity generators.

(48) Solid Waste

Any garbage, or refuse, sludge from a residence, business, wastewater treatment plant, water supply treatment plant, or air pollution control facility and other discarded materials, resulting from industrial, commercial mining, or agricultural operations, and from community activities, businesses or residences. It includes any discarded or abandoned materials. It can be solid, liquid, semi-solid or containerized gaseous material.

(49) Solid Waste Transfer Station (SWTS) or Transfer Station

A publicly or privately-owned facility or site that receives solid waste as for the purpose of sorting, recycling, compacting, recovering, and transferring solid waste. A SWTS unit may be a new unit, an existing unit or a lateral expansion. A lateral expansion is the horizontal expansion of an existing unit.

(50) Source Reduction

The design, manufacture, and use of products in a way that reduces the quantity and toxicity of waste produced when the products reach the end of their useful lives; i.e. waste prevention.

(51) SWDA (The Solid Waste Disposal Act)

Solid Waste Disposal Act of 1965, set national goals for:

(A) Protecting human health and the environment from the potential hazards of waste disposal.

(B) Conserving energy and natural resources.

(D) Ensuring that wastes are managed in an environmentally-sound manner. https://www.epa.gov/history

(52) Treatment

When used in connection with hazardous waste, is any 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 such waste or so as to render such waste non-hazardous, safer for transport, amendable for recovery, amendable for storage, or reduced in volume. Such term includes any activity or processing designed to change the physical form or chemical composition of hazardous waste so as to render it non-hazardous.

(53) Tribe's Solid Waste Disposal Program

All the authorities, activities and procedures under this chapter, the Tribe's Solid Waste Management Plan, and any other Tribal laws or regulations that comprise the Tribe's system of permits, and prior approval and conditions for regulating the collection, handling, transportation, and disposal, treatment and storage of solid waste, including all of the location, operation, design, groundwater monitoring, corrective action, closure, post-closure and financial assurance requirements.

(54) Tribe's Solid Waste Management Plan and Regulations

The formulation of Tribal policies for all solid waste collection, handling, transportation, disposal, treatment, storage, source reduction, reusing, recycling and resource conservation on the Reservation.

(55) Vector

Any insect, arthropod, rodent, or other animal capable of transmitting a pathogen from one organism to another, or of disrupting the normal enjoyment of life by adversely affecting the public health and well-being.