Section 250-RICR-40-20-3.6 - Agricultural Composting - Operating StandardsA. Agricultural composting facilities shall prohibit and prevent the illegal dumping of waste materials at such agricultural composting facility.B. Composting operations shall comply with all state and local regulations governing agricultural composting including those which relate to siting requirements.C. The operating of the agricultural composting facility must be done in a manner to minimize odors, noise, drift of materials, and risk to humans or the environment.D. If an agricultural compost operator produces compost for marketing as a soil amendment, this operation shall be subject to the Rhode Island Fertilizer Law, R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 2-7 and Rhode Island Soil Amendment Law, R.I. Gen. Laws Chapter 2-22.E. Only clean uncontaminated, source separated, organic materials as listed in §§ 3.5(B), (C) or (E) of this Part may be composted on an agricultural composting facility. Materials such as sewage sludge, and/or construction and demolition debris are prohibited from being composted at an agricultural composting facility and any utilization of these materials on an agricultural unit must be approved by the Office of Water Resources and/or the Office of Waste Management.F. On-farm composting operators who accept off-farm compostable material and who are determined by the Division of Agriculture not to be using best management practices at their agricultural composting facility as stated in the On-Farm Composting Handbook (NRAES-54, June 1992, ISBN: 0-935817-19-0) distributed by the Natural Resource, Agriculture, and Engineering Service (NRAES), formerly known as the Northeast Regional Agricultural Engineering Service, shall not be permitted to register their agricultural composting facility with the Division of Agriculture. These Agricultural Composting operators must come into compliance and establish that they are using best management practices at their agricultural composting facility within sixty (60) days of notification that they are not using best management practices. Any person who fails to come into compliance within the sixty (60) days will be referred to the appropriate Department Office for action.G. No agricultural composting facility shall be larger than 20% of the total land mass of the agricultural unit that is in agricultural production.H. Agricultural composting facilities that compost putrescible wastes may only accept putrescible waste from October 1 through March 31. If it is determined by the Division of Agriculture that the operator of an agricultural composting facility has at least 3 years of experience of successful composting of putrescible waste, the operator may request approval from the Division of Agriculture to extend the period for accepting putrescible waste, provided that the operator is able to take preventative measures to mitigate off-farm odors from the composting operation.I. An agricultural composting facility operator who accepts off-farm putrescible waste must have and implement a stormwater run-off plan as well as develop and utilize a drainage system to prevent sediment or run-off water from migrating off-site. The plan must be in effect before accepting any putrescible waste. The storm water run-off plan must be in accordance with planning standards that achieve local, state and federal water-quality criteria. This runoff plan can contain one or more component "best management practices" which are part of the overall plan. These component practices must be in accordance with United States Department of Agriculture, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Conservation Practice Standard for Rhode Island, Composting Facility, Code 317.J. All agricultural composting facilities shall comply with their operation and maintenance plan.250 R.I. Code R. 250-RICR-40-20-3.6