Coal Combustion Waste Management at - DOE - Fossil Energy ...

A-19
landfills. Otherwise, surface impoundments are regulated as water pollution control facilities
rather than solid waste management units in the States reviewed. In general, water pollution
control facilities treat or store wastewater, including industrial wastewater, and discharge it
directly or indirectly into waters of a State, which usually encompass both surface water and
groundwater located wholly or partially within the State.
All 11 States require a surface impoundment that discharges wastewater from a point
source into waters of the State to have a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) permit (or the State equivalent), although Wisconsin exempts surface impoundments
used for disposal, which are thereby subject to regulation as solid waste disposal units, from this
requirement. If a surface impoundment receiving CCWs does not discharge from a point source
and is thus not required to have a NPDES permit, seven of the States reviewed (Florida, Georgia,
Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio, and Virginia) require alternative water pollution control
permits, and Texas requires compliance with permitting requirements for solid waste landfills.
Indiana, Missouri, and Virginia expressly exclude surface impoundments that have water
pollution control permits from solid waste permitting requirements.
Ten of the 11 States reviewed allow requirements (such as the installation of
groundwater-monitoring systems, liner systems, and leachate control systems) to be placed in
NPDES permits and other water pollution control permits, to protect human health and the
environment. In Pennsylvania, such requirements are placed into solid waste permits. It should
also be noted that in Florida, such requirements may be placed into the PPSA certification rather
than in water pollution control permits for CCW surface impoundments located on-site at an
electric generating company.
A.3.2 Chronological Comparison of Permitting Requirements for Landfills
in Selected States
Table A.5 compares the findings regarding permitting requirements in the five pilot
States and six supplemental States (“2005 Data” column) with the historical permitting
requirements in these States as reported in EPA 1988 and EPA 1999b.
A.3.3 State-Specific Discussion of Permitting Requirements
Alabama—No permits are required under the Alabama solid waste regulatory program
for landfills receiving CCWs for disposal because the definitions of the terms “industrial solid
waste” and “ash” provided in the Alabama solid waste regulations expressly exclude fly ash
waste, bottom ash waste, boiler slag waste, and flue gas emission control waste, which result
from the combustion of coal or other fossil fuels at electric- or steam-generating plants (ADEM
Adm. Code R.335-13-1-.03(12) and (63)). However, the ADEM has general authority to regulate
activities that may impact groundwater, and the Hydrogeology Unit of the ADEM Groundwater
Branch implements a Groundwater-Protection Program. Through this program, the ADEM may
exert its general groundwater-protection authority, if necessary, on a case-specific basis.