La. Admin. Code tit. 33 § V-1909

Current through Register Vol. 50, No. 6, June 20, 2024

Section V-1909 - General Operating Requirements

A. Hazardous wastes or treatment reagents must not be placed in a tank system if they could cause the tank, its ancillary equipment, or the containment system to rupture, leak, corrode, or otherwise fail.

B. The owner or operator must use appropriate controls and practices to prevent spills and overflows from tank or containment systems. These include at a minimum:

1. spill prevention controls (e.g., check valves, dry disconnect couplings);

2. overfill prevention controls (e.g., level sensing devices, high level alarms, automatic feed cutoff or bypass to a standby tank); and

3. maintenance of sufficient freeboard in uncovered tanks to prevent overtopping by wave or wind action or by precipitation.

C. The owner or operator must comply with the requirements of LAC 33:V.1913 if a leak or spill occurs in the tank system.

D. Owners or operators must provide documentation, maintained on-site, that batch tanks subject to the accumulation time exclusions of LAC 33:V.1013.C and 1015.B have been emptied and cleaned of all residues and/or sludges at least once in each 90-day period for large quantity generators and at least once in each 180-day period for small quantity generators.

1. A batch tank is deemed emptied and cleaned for the purposes of this Subsection if it has been emptied to the maximum extent practicable and:

a. for tanks used to store similar wastes (compatible), cleaning/rinsing or removal of hazardous waste to a level at which no more than 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) of waste on the bottom of the tank or 3 percent by volume of the total tank capacity remains in the tank is required; or

b. for tanks that may be used to store dissimilar (incompatible) wastes, cleaning/rinsing by method(s) necessary to remove all hazardous wastes to a level which precludes any incompatibility reactions and is sufficient to allow visible inspection of all tank interior surfaces is required.

2. Notwithstanding the provisions of Paragraph D.1 of this Section, except to the extent otherwise approved by the administrative authority, batch tanks subject to the accumulation time exclusions of LAC 33:V.1013.C and 1015.B must be completely emptied and cleaned once per year to a level sufficient to allow visual inspection of all tank interior surfaces.

E. Owners or operators must provide documentation, maintained on-site, that continuous-flow tanks subject to the accumulation time exclusions of LAC 33:V.1013.C and 1015.B have been emptied at least once in each 90-day period for large quantity generators and once in each 180-day period for small quantity generators.

1. A continuous-flow tank is deemed emptied if the owner or operator can demonstrate, via a mass balance approach and appropriate documentation or methodology, that hazardous waste has not been stored therein for more than the accumulation time limits. The key parameters in the mass balance approach are the volume of the tank, the daily throughput of the hazardous waste, and the time period the hazardous waste "resides" in the tank. As an example, in the case of a large quantity generator with a 6,000 gallon tank and daily throughput of 300 gallons per day, the hazardous waste would have a residence time of 20 days (i.e., 6,000 gallons/300 gallons per day) and would meet the requirements of LAC 33:V.1015.B since the hazardous waste has been in the tank for less than 90 days.

2. The documentation or methodology that is used by the owner or operator to confirm a continuous-flow tank's compliance with Paragraph E.1 of this Section must be reasonable and easily discernible to the department.

3. A continuous-flow tank in which a significant amount of residue or sludge is accumulated may not qualify for the accumulation time exclusions of LAC 33:V.1013.C and 1015.B. Therefore, the owner or operator of a continuous-flow tank for which that exclusion is claimed must ensure that significant accumulation of residue or sludge does not occur in the tank by satisfying the requirements either of Subsection D of this Section (in which case the words "continuous-flow tank" shall be substituted for the words "batch tank" in each instance where "batch tank" appears in that Subsection), or of Paragraph E.4 of this Section.

4. The owner or operator must provide documentation, maintained on-site, establishing that significant accumulations of residue or sludge do not occur within the tank; i.e., almost all residues or sludges in the tank at the beginning of the 90-day or 180-day accumulation period have been removed (or displaced by incoming waste or newly-formed residues or sludges) by the end of the 90-day or 180-day accumulation period. The determination of what constitutes "significant accumulation of residue or sludge" shall be made on a case-by-case basis. However, no significant accumulation of residues or sludges shall be deemed to have occurred if the residues or sludges that accumulate in the tank constitute less than 5 percent by volume of the total tank capacity. To the extent that there is no significant accumulation of residue or sludge in the tank, the one-year storage prohibition under LAC 33:V.2205 shall not apply to any residue or sludge contained therein.

La. Admin. Code tit. 33, § V-1909

Promulgated by the Department of Environmental Quality, Office of Solid and Hazardous Waste, Hazardous Waste Division, LR 10:200 (March 1984), amended LR 13:651 (November 1987), LR 16:614 (July 1990), amended by the Office of Environmental Assessment, Environmental Planning Division, LR 25:1804 (October 1999), amended by the Office of the Secretary, Legal Affairs Division, LR 36:1237 (June 2010), repromulgated LR 36:1538 (July 2010), Amended by the Office of the Secretary, Legal Affairs and Criminal Investigations Division, LR 46935 (7/1/2020).

AUTHORITY NOTE: Promulgated in accordance with R.S. 30:2180 et seq.