Section 6560. Definitions

A. For the purpose of applying this article in the context of the Regulations for the Control and Abatement of Air Pollution related uses, the words or terms shall have the meanings given them in subsection C of this section.

B. As used in this article, all terms not defined herein shall have the meanings given them in 9VAC5 Chapter 10, unless otherwise required by context.

C. Terms defined.

"Air curtain incinerator" means an incinerator that operates by forcefully projecting a curtain of air across an open chamber or pit in which combustion occurs. Incinerators of that type can be constructed above or below ground and with or without refractory walls and floor.

"Batch municipal waste combustion unit" means a municipal waste combustion unit designed so it cannot combust municipal solid waste continuously 24 hours per day because the design does not allow waste to be fed to the unit or ash to be removed during combustion.

"Calendar quarter" means three consecutive months (nonoverlapping) beginning on January 1, April 1, July 1, or October 1.

"Calendar year" means 365 (or 366 consecutive days in leap years) consecutive days starting on January 1 and ending on December 31.

"Chief facility operator" means the person in direct charge and control of the operation of a municipal waste combustion unit. That person is responsible for daily onsite supervision, technical direction, management, and overall performance of the municipal waste combustion unit.

"Class I units" mean small municipal waste combustion units subject to this article that are located at municipal waste combustion plants with an aggregate plant combustion capacity greater than 250 tons per day of municipal solid waste. See the definition in this section of "municipal waste combustion plant capacity" for specification of which units at a plant site are included in the aggregate capacity calculation.

"Class II units" mean small municipal combustion units subject to this article that are located at municipal waste combustion plants with aggregate plant combustion capacity less than or equal to 250 tons per day of municipal solid waste. See the definition in this section of "municipal waste combustion plant capacity" for specification of which units at a plant site are included in the aggregate capacity calculation.

"Clean wood" means untreated wood or untreated wood products including clean untreated lumber, tree stumps (whole or chipped), and tree limbs (whole or chipped). Clean wood does not include: (i) yard waste, or (ii) construction, renovation, or demolition wastes (for example, railroad ties and telephone poles) that are exempt from the definition of "municipal solid waste" in this section.

"Co-fired combustion unit" means a unit that combusts municipal solid waste with nonmunicipal solid waste fuel (for example, coal, industrial process waste). To be considered a co-fired combustion unit, the unit shall be subject to a federally enforceable permit that limits it to combusting a fuel feed stream that is 30% or less (by weight) municipal solid waste as measured each calendar quarter.

"Continuous burning" means the continuous, semicontinuous, or batch feeding of municipal solid waste to dispose of the waste, produce energy, or provide heat to the combustion system in preparation for waste disposal or energy production. Continuous burning does not mean the use of municipal solid waste solely to thermally protect the grate or hearth during the startup period when municipal solid waste is not fed to the grate or hearth.

"Continuous emission monitoring system" means a monitoring system that continuously measures the emissions of a pollutant from a municipal waste combustion unit.

"Dioxins/furans" mean tetra-through octachlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans.

"Eight-hour block average" means the average of all hourly emission concentrations or parameter levels when the municipal waste combustion unit operates and combusts municipal solid waste measured over any of three eight-hour periods of time: (i) midnight to 8 a.m., (ii) 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and (iii) 4 p.m. to midnight.

"Federal operating permit" means a permit issued under Article 1 (9VAC5-80-50 et seq.) of Part II of 9VAC5-80.

"First calendar half" means the period that starts on January 1 and ends on June 30 in any year.

"Fluidized bed combustion unit" means a unit where municipal waste is combusted in a fluidized bed of material. The fluidized bed material may remain in the primary combustion zone or may be carried out of the primary combustion zone and returned through a recirculation loop.

"Four-hour block average" means the average of all hourly emission concentrations or parameter levels when the municipal waste combustion unit operates and combusts municipal solid waste measured over any of six four-hour periods: (i) midnight to 4 a.m., (ii) 4 a.m. to 8 a.m., (iii) 8 a.m. to noon, (iv) noon to 4 p.m., (v) 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., and (vi) 8 p.m. to midnight.

"Mass burn refractory municipal waste combustion unit" means a field-erected municipal waste combustion unit that combusts municipal solid waste in a refractory wall furnace. Unless otherwise specified, that includes municipal waste combustion units with a cylindrical rotary refractory wall furnace.

"Mass burn rotary waterwall municipal waste combustion unit" means a field-erected municipal waste combustion unit that combusts municipal solid waste in a cylindrical rotary waterwall furnace.

"Mass burn waterwall municipal waste combustion unit" means a field-erected municipal waste combustion unit that combusts municipal solid waste in a waterwall furnace.

"Maximum demonstrated load of a municipal waste combustion unit" means the highest four-hour block arithmetic average municipal waste combustion unit load achieved during four consecutive hours in the course of the most recent dioxins/furans emission test that demonstrates compliance with the applicable emission limit for dioxins/furans specified in this article.

"Maximum demonstrated temperature of the particulate matter control device" means the highest four-hour block arithmetic average flue gas temperature measured at the inlet of the particulate matter control device during four consecutive hours in the course of the most recent emission test for dioxins/furans emissions that demonstrates compliance with the limits specified in this article.

"Medical/infectious waste" means any waste generated in the diagnosis, treatment, or immunization of human beings or animals, in research pertaining thereto, or in the production or testing of biologicals that is listed in subdivisions 1 through 9 of this definition. The definition of medical/infectious waste does not include hazardous waste identified or listed under the regulations in 40 CFR Part 261; household waste, as defined in 40 CFR 261.4(b)(1); ash from incineration of medical/infectious waste, once the incineration process has been completed; human corpses, remains, and anatomical parts that are intended for interment or cremation; and domestic sewage materials identified in 40 CFR 261.4(a)(1).

1. Cultures and stocks of infectious agents and associated biologicals, including: cultures from medical and pathological laboratories; cultures and stocks of infectious agents from research and industrial laboratories; wastes from the production of biologicals; discarded live and attenuated vaccines; and culture dishes and devices used to transfer, inoculate, and mix cultures.

2. Human pathological waste, including tissues, organs, and body parts and body fluids that are removed during surgery or autopsy, or other medical procedures, and specimens of body fluids and their containers.

3. Human blood and blood products, regardless of whether containerized, including:

a. Liquid human blood;

b. Products of blood;

c. Items containing unabsorbed or free-flowing blood;

d. Items saturated or dripping or both with human blood; or

e. Items that were saturated and dripping or both with human blood that are now caked with dried human blood; including serum, plasma, and other blood components, and their containers, which were used or intended for use in either patient care, testing and laboratory analysis or the development of pharmaceuticals. Intravenous bags are also included in this category.

4. Regardless of the presence of infectious agents, sharps that have been used in animal or human patient care or treatment or in medical, research, or industrial laboratories, including hypodermic needles, syringes (with or without the attached needle), pasteur pipettes, scalpel blades, blood vials, needles with attached tubing, and culture dishes. Also included are other types of broken or unbroken glassware that may have been in contact with infectious agents, such as used slides and cover slips.

5. Animal waste including contaminated animal carcasses, body parts, and bedding of animals that were known to have been exposed to infectious agents during research (including research in veterinary hospitals), production of biologicals or testing of pharmaceuticals.

6. Isolation wastes including biological waste and discarded materials contaminated with blood, excretions, exudates, or secretions from humans who are isolated to protect others from certain highly communicable diseases, or isolated animals known to be infected with highly communicable diseases.

7. Unused sharps including the following unused, discarded sharps: hypodermic needles, suture needles, syringes, and scalpel blades.

8. Any waste that is contaminated or mixed with any waste listed in subdivisions 1 through 7 of this definition.

9. Any residue or contaminated soil, waste, or other debris resulting from the cleaning of a spill of any waste listed in subdivisions 1 through 8 of this definition.

"Mixed fuel-fired (pulverized coal/refuse-derived fuel) combustion unit" means a combustion unit that combusts coal and refuse-derived fuel simultaneously, in which pulverized coal is introduced into an air stream that carries the coal to the combustion chamber of the unit where it is combusted in suspension. That includes both conventional pulverized coal and micropulverized coal.

"Modification" or "modified municipal waste combustion unit" means a municipal waste combustion unit that has been modified after June 6, 2001, and that meets one of the following criteria: (i) the cumulative cost of the changes over the life of the unit exceeds 50% of the original cost of building and installing the unit (not including the cost of land) updated to current costs; or (ii) any physical change in the municipal waste combustion unit or change in the method of operating it that increases the emission level of any air pollutant for which new source performance standards have been established under § 129 or § 111 of the federal Clean Air Act. Increases in the emission level of any air pollutant are determined when the municipal waste combustion unit operates at 100% of its physical load capability and are measured downstream of all air pollution control devices. Load restrictions based on permits or other nonphysical operational restrictions cannot be considered in the determination.

"Modular excess-air municipal waste combustion unit" means a municipal waste combustion unit that combusts municipal solid waste, is not field-erected, and has multiple combustion chambers, all of which are designed to operate at conditions with combustion air amounts in excess of theoretical air requirements.

"Modular starved-air municipal waste combustion unit" means a municipal waste combustion unit that combusts municipal solid waste, is not field-erected, and has multiple combustion chambers in which the primary combustion chamber is designed to operate at substoichiometric conditions.

"Municipal solid waste or municipal-type solid waste" means household, commercial/retail, or institutional waste. Household waste includes material discarded by residential dwellings, hotels, motels, and other similar permanent or temporary housing. Commercial/retail waste includes material discarded by stores, offices, restaurants, warehouses, nonmanufacturing activities at industrial facilities, and other similar establishments or facilities. Institutional waste includes materials discarded by schools, by hospitals (nonmedical), by nonmanufacturing activities at prisons and government facilities, and other similar establishments or facilities. Household, commercial/retail, and institutional waste does include yard waste and refuse-derived fuel. Household, commercial/retail, and institutional waste does not include used oil; sewage sludge; wood pallets; construction, renovation, and demolition wastes (which include railroad ties and telephone poles); clean wood; industrial process or manufacturing wastes; medical waste; or motor vehicles (including motor vehicle parts or vehicle fluff).

"Municipal waste combustion plant" means one or more municipal waste combustion units at the same location.

"Municipal waste combustion plant capacity" means the aggregate municipal waste combustion capacity of all municipal waste combustion units at the plant that are not subject to subparts Ea, Eb, or AAAA of 40 CFR Part 60.

"Municipal waste combustion unit" means any setting or equipment that combusts solid, liquid, or gasified municipal solid waste including, but not limited to, field-erected combustion units (with or without heat recovery), modular combustion units (starved-air or excess-air), boilers (for example, steam generating units), furnaces (whether suspension-fired, grate-fired, mass-fired, air curtain incinerators, or fluidized bed-fired), and pyrolysis/combustion units. Municipal waste combustion units do not include pyrolysis or combustion units located at a plastics or rubber recycling unit. Municipal waste combustion units do not include cement kilns that combust municipal solid waste. Municipal waste combustion units do not include internal combustion engines, gas turbines, or other combustion devices that combust landfill gases collected by landfill gas collection systems. The municipal waste combustion unit includes, but is not limited to, the municipal solid waste fuel feed system, grate system, flue gas system, bottom ash system, and the combustion unit water system. The municipal waste combustion unit does not include air pollution control equipment, the stack, water treatment equipment, or the turbine-generator set. The municipal waste combustion unit boundary starts at the municipal solid waste pit or hopper and extends through: (i) the combustion unit flue gas system, which ends immediately after the heat recovery equipment or, if there is no heat recovery equipment, immediately after the combustion chamber; (ii) the combustion unit bottom ash system, which ends at the truck loading station or similar equipment that transfers the ash to final disposal. It includes all ash handling systems connected to the bottom ash handling system; and (iii) the combustion unit water system, which starts at the feed water pump and ends at the piping that exits the steam drum or superheater.

"Particulate matter" means total particulate matter emitted from municipal waste combustion units as measured using Reference Method 5 and the procedures specified in 9VAC5-40-6740 D.

"Plastics or rubber recycling unit" means an integrated processing unit for which plastics, rubber, or rubber tires are the only feed materials (incidental contaminants may be in the feed materials). The feed materials are processed and marketed to become input feed stock for chemical plants or petroleum refineries. Each calendar quarter, the combined weight of the feed stock that a plastics or rubber recycling unit produces shall be more than 70% of the combined weight of the plastics, rubber, and rubber tires that recycling unit processes. The plastics, rubber, or rubber tires fed to the recycling unit may originate from separating or diverting plastics, rubber, or rubber tires from municipal or industrial solid waste. The feed materials may include manufacturing scraps, trimmings, and off-specification plastics, rubber, and rubber tire discards. The plastics, rubber, and rubber tires fed to the recycling unit may contain incidental contaminants (for example, paper labels on plastic bottles or metal rings on plastic bottle caps).

"Potential hydrogen chloride emissions" means the level of emissions from a municipal waste combustion unit that would occur from combusting municipal solid waste without emission controls for acid gases.

"Potential mercury emissions" means the level of emissions from a municipal waste combustion unit that would occur from combusting municipal solid waste without controls for mercury emissions.

"Potential sulfur dioxide emissions" means the level of emissions from a municipal waste combustion unit that would occur from combusting municipal solid waste without emission controls for acid gases.

"Pyrolysis/combustion unit" means a unit that produces gases, liquids, or solids by heating municipal solid waste. The gases, liquids, or solids produced are combusted and the emissions vented to the atmosphere.

"Reconstruction" means rebuilding a municipal waste combustion unit and meeting two criteria: (i) the reconstruction begins after June 6, 2001; and (ii) the cumulative cost of the construction over the life of the unit exceeds 50% of the original cost of building and installing the municipal waste combustion unit (not including land) updated to current costs (current dollars). To determine what systems are within the boundary of the municipal waste combustion unit used to calculate the costs, see the definition in this section of "municipal waste combustion unit."

"Refractory unit" or "refractory wall furnace" means a municipal waste combustion unit that has no energy recovery (such as through a waterwall) in the furnace of the municipal waste combustion unit.

"Refuse-derived fuel" means a type of municipal solid waste produced by processing municipal solid waste through shredding and size classification. Refuse-derived fuel includes all classes of refuse-derived fuel, including low-density fluff refuse-derived fuel through densified refuse-derived fuel, and pelletized refuse-derived fuel.

"Same location" means the same or contiguous properties under common ownership or control, including those separated only by a street, road, highway, or other public right-of-way. Common ownership or control includes properties that are owned, leased, or operated by the same entity, parent entity, subsidiary, subdivision, or any combination thereof. Entities may include a municipality, other governmental unit, or any quasi-governmental authority (for example, a public utility district or regional authority for waste disposal).

"Second calendar half" means the period that starts on July 1 and ends on December 31 in any year.

"Shift supervisor" means the person who is in direct charge and control of operating a municipal waste combustion unit and who is responsible for onsite supervision, technical direction, management, and overall performance of the municipal waste combustion unit during an assigned shift.

"Spreader stoker, mixed fuel-fired (coal/refuse-derived fuel) combustion unit" means a municipal waste combustion unit that combusts coal and refuse-derived fuel simultaneously, in which coal is introduced to the combustion zone by a mechanism that throws the fuel onto a grate from above. Combustion takes place both in suspension and on the grate.

"Standard conditions," when referring to units of measure, means a temperature of 20°C and a pressure of 101.3 kilopascals.

"Startup period" means the period when a municipal waste combustion unit begins the continuous combustion of municipal solid waste. It does not include any warmup period during which the municipal waste combustion unit combusts fossil fuel or other solid waste fuel but receives no municipal solid waste.

"Stoker (refuse-derived fuel) combustion unit" means a steam generating unit that combusts refuse-derived fuel in a semisuspension combusting mode, using air-fed distributors.

"Total mass dioxins/furans or total mass" means the total mass of tetra-through octachlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans as determined using Reference Method 23 and the procedures specified in 9VAC5-40-6740 D.

"Twenty-four hour daily average" or "24-hour daily average" means either the arithmetic mean or geometric mean (as specified) of all hourly emission concentrations when the municipal waste combustion unit operates and combusts municipal solid waste measured during the 24 hours between midnight and the following midnight.

"Untreated lumber" means wood or wood products that have been cut or shaped and include wet, air-dried, and kiln-dried wood products. Untreated lumber does not include wood products that have been painted, pigment-stained, or pressure-treated by compounds such as chromate copper arsenate, pentachlorophenol, and creosote.

"Waterwall furnace" means a municipal waste combustion unit that has energy (heat) recovery in the furnace (for example, radiant heat transfer section) of the combustion unit.

"Yard waste" means grass, grass clippings, bushes, shrubs, and clippings from bushes and shrubs that come from residential, commercial/retail, institutional, or industrial sources as part of maintaining yards or other private or public lands. Yard waste does not include: (i) construction, renovation, and demolition wastes that are exempt from the definition of "municipal solid waste" in this section; or (ii) clean wood that is exempt from the definition of "municipal solid waste" in this section.

Historical Notes

Derived from Volume 19, Issue 24, eff. September 10, 2003.

Statutory Authority

§ 10.1-1308 of the Code of Virginia.