Q. Can you please help me translate the federal rule regarding an “Onsite Consolidation facility”?
 |
A. The federal definitions of “generator”, “individual generation site” and “on-site” in 40 CFR 260.10 are relevant to determining whether your generation site is contiguous to your “onsite consolidation facility” as is whether you have been issued one EPA Identification number for both. If EPA has issued you one EPA ID number for both sites, the agency considers both sites to be one generation site as EPA issues ID numbers on a by-site basis.
The federal definitions of the following terms are:
“Generator” means “any person, by site, whose act or process produces hazardous waste….”
“Individual generation site” means “the contiguous site at or on which one or more hazardous wastes are generated. An individual generation site, such as a large manufacturing plant, may have one or more sources of hazardous waste but is considered a single or individual generation site if the site or property is contiguous.”
“On-site” means “the same or geographically contiguous property which may be divided by public or private right-of-way, provided the entrance and exit between the properties is at a cross-roads intersection, and access is by crossing as opposed to going along, the right-of-way. Non-contiguous properties owned by the same person but connected by a right-of-way which he controls and to which the public does not have access is also considered on-site property.”
(“Contiguous” is not defined by EPA but its dictionary meaning is “being in actual contact: touching along a boundary or at a point”.)
For purposes of the “on-site” definition, the idea is that the two properties would geographically touch each other were it not for a public road or private public right of way dividing them. If this is the case, for the two properties to be considered, in effect, one property or one generator (an “individual generation site”) the access from one property to another must be by directly crossing the public road from one property to the other without having to travel along the public road or private right of way. In other words, the exit from property A must be directly opposite the entrance to property B (i.e. they are at a “cross-roads intersection” as specified in the definition). However, non-contiguous properties owned by the same person who controls the right of way that connects them, and which is not accessible to the public, are considered one property pursuant to the definition of “on-site.”
So, if you cannot go from one of your sites to the other without traveling along the public roads (to which you refer), it would appear that your sites are not “contiguous” and therefore not “onsite properties.”