SENATE BILL 440

50th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2011

INTRODUCED BY

Richard C. Martinez

AN ACT

RELATING TO THE ENVIRONMENT; AMENDING THE RADIOACTIVE AND HAZARDOUS MATERIALS ACT TO SUPPLEMENT THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE RADIOACTIVE AND HAZARDOUS MATERIALS COMMITTEE AND TO CHANGE ITS NAME.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. Section 74-4A-3 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1979, Chapter 380, Section 2, as amended) is amended to read:

     "74-4A-3. FINDINGS AND PURPOSE.--

          A. The legislature finds that there is [presently] currently much public and state concern in the area of public health and safety over:

                (1) the [proposed] waste isolation pilot plant for defense-related radioactive wastes;

                (2) the safe treatment and disposal of hazardous wastes and the regulation of hazardous waste generators;

                (3) the effective provision of regulation and information regarding hazardous chemicals in the community and in the work place;

                (4) the effective control of contamination from underground storage tanks;

                (5) the transportation on New Mexico highways and streets of radioactive and hazardous materials;

                (6) the disposition of uranium mine and mill tailings; [and]

                (7) the need to provide efficient and timely emergency response to accidents or natural disasters involving the disposal, storage or transportation of radioactive and hazardous materials;

                (8) the need to examine critical energy issues relating to the environment; and

                (9) the need to review environmental policies and administration of those policies.

          B. The legislature further finds that there is a need to centralize and coordinate information on these concerns and to develop recommendations for action by the state. It is the purpose of the Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Act to provide a vehicle for proper consideration of these legitimate state concerns without unnecessarily hampering the nuclear energy industry, adversely affecting the state's economy or compromising the nation's defense."

     SECTION 2. Section 74-4A-4 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1981, Chapter 374, Section 3, as amended) is amended to read:

     "74-4A-4. DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Act:

          A. "committee" means the joint interim legislative [radioactive and hazardous materials] energy and environment committee;

          B. "disposal" means the long-term isolation of radioactive material, including long-term monitored storage [which] that permits retrieval of the radioactive material stored and includes the temporary or permanent disposal of all hazardous wastes;

          C. "environmental evaluation group" means the independent state review facility administratively attached to New Mexico institute of mining and technology and funded by the United States department of energy;

          D. "hazardous waste" means any garbage, refuse, sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply treatment plant or air pollution control facility or other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semisolid or containing gaseous material resulting from industrial, commercial, mining or agricultural operations or from community activities [which] that because of its quantity, concentration or physical, chemical or infectious characteristics may cause or significantly contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness or pose a substantial [present] current or potential hazard to human health or the environment when improperly treated, stored, transported, disposed of or otherwise managed. The term "hazardous waste" does not include solid or dissolved material in domestic sewage or animal excrement in connection with farm, ranch or feedlot operations or solid or dissolved materials in irrigation return flows or industrial discharges that are point sources subject to permits under Section 402 of the federal Water Pollution Control Act, as amended, as the provisions exist on January 1, 1981, or source, special or byproduct material as defined in the Atomic Energy Act of 1954, as amended, as these definitions exist on January 1, 1981, or any of the following, until the environmental improvement board determines that they are subject to Subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, as amended (42 U.S.C. 6921 et seq.): drilling fluids, produced waters and other wastes associated with the exploration, development or production of crude oil or natural gas or geothermal energy, any fly ash waste, bottom ash waste, slag waste, flue gas emission control waste generated primarily from the combustion of coal or other fossil fuels, solid waste from the extraction, beneficiation or processing of ores and minerals, including phosphate rock and overburden from the mining of uranium ore or cement kiln dust waste;

          E. "high-level waste" means the highly radioactive wastes resulting from the reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel and includes both the liquid waste [which] that is produced directly in reprocessing and any solid material into which such liquid waste is made;

          F. "low-level waste" means material contaminated with radioactive elements emitting beta or gamma particles or with traces of transuranic elements in concentrations of less than one hundred nanocuries per gram;

          G. "mixed waste" means any mixture of hazardous waste regulated under the Hazardous Waste Act and radioactive waste regulated under the federal Atomic Energy Act of 1954;

          H. "radioactive materials" means any material or combination of materials [which] that spontaneously emits ionizing radiation. Materials in which the estimated specific activity is not greater than 0.002 microcuries per gram of material, and in which the radioactivity is essentially uniformly distributed, are not considered to be radioactive materials;

          I. "radioactive waste" means high-level waste, transuranic contaminated waste and low-level waste;

          J. "spent fuel" means nuclear fuel that has been irradiated in and recovered from a civilian nuclear power plant;

          K. "task force" means the radioactive waste consultation task force; and

          L. "transuranic contaminated waste" means material contaminated with radionuclides emitting alpha radiation having an atomic number greater than ninety-two, including neptunium, plutonium, americium and curium, in concentrations of greater than one hundred nanocuries per gram."

     SECTION 3. Section 74-4A-9 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1979, Chapter 380, Section 8, as amended) is amended to read:

     "74-4A-9. COMMITTEE.--There is created a joint interim legislative committee, which shall be known as the "[radioactive and hazardous materials] energy and environment committee". The committee shall function from the date of its appointment."

     SECTION 4. Section 74-4A-11 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1979, Chapter 380, Section 10, as amended) is amended to read:

     "74-4A-11. COMMITTEE DUTIES.--At the beginning of each interim, the committee shall hold one organizational meeting to develop a work plan and budget for the period prior to January 1 preceding the next regular session of the legislature. The work plan and budget shall be submitted to the New Mexico legislative council for approval. Upon approval of the work plan and budget by the legislative council, the committee shall examine all matters relevant to the purposes of the Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Act and state policies on energy and the environment and shall submit recommended legislation, together with a report on the activities and expenditures of the committee, to the legislature. In making recommendations, the committee shall review and monitor the following areas:

          A. the generation, treatment, storage, transportation or disposal of radioactive or hazardous materials and wastes;

          B. the control and handling of mixed waste transported to the waste isolation pilot plant site for disposal;

          C. the progress and effectiveness of remediation actions at sites contaminated by radioactive or hazardous materials;

          D. the compliance with the environmental protection agency, the council on environmental quality and the office of surface mining reclamation and enforcement regulations and standards pursuant to federal environmental statutes;

          E. the provision of activities and investigations and the dissemination of information by the environmental evaluation group; however, nothing in the Radioactive and Hazardous Materials Act shall be construed to limit the independent technical review and evaluation by that group of the impact on health and safety of the waste isolation pilot plant;

          F. the disposition of uranium mine and mill tailings;

          G. the means through which disposition of low-level wastes may be accomplished, such as participation in a regional compact with other states;

          H. the state emergency response capability;

          I. the Ground Water Protection Act, in cooperation with other legislative committees, regarding the use or management of storage tanks and releases;

          J. the Hazardous Chemicals Information Act, in cooperation with other legislative committees; [and]

          K. such matters assigned by the legislature and consultations and negotiations with the federal government and other state governments or their representatives and agreements and revisions thereto; and

          L. energy issues relating to the environment and environmental policies and administration of those policies."

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