Section 7960. Definitions

A. For the purpose of applying this article in the context of the Regulations for the Control and Abatement of Air Pollution and 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 burning occurs. Incinerators of this type can be constructed above or below ground and with or without refractory walls and floor.

"Batch municipal waste combustor" means a municipal waste combustor unit designed so that 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 while combustion is occurring.

"Bubbling fluidized bed combustor" means a fluidized bed combustor in which the majority of the bed material remains in a fluidized state in the primary combustion zone.

"Calendar quarter" means a consecutive three-month period (nonoverlapping) beginning on January 1, April 1, July 1, and October 1.

"Calendar year" means the period including 365 days (or 336 consecutive days in leap years) starting 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 combustor and who is responsible for daily onsite supervision, technical direction, management, and overall performance of the facility.

"Circulating fluidized bed combustor" means a fluidized bed combustor in which the majority of the fluidized bed material is carried out of the primary combustion zone and is transported back to the primary zone through a recirculation loop.

"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 yard waste, which is defined elsewhere in this section, or construction, renovation, and demolition wastes (including but not limited to railroad ties and telephone poles), which are exempt from the definition of municipal solid waste in this section.

"Cofired combustor" means a unit combusting municipal solid waste with nonmunicipal solid waste fuel (e.g., coal, industrial process waste) and subject to a federally enforceable permit limiting the unit to combusting a fuel feed stream, 30% or less of the weight of which is comprised, in aggregate, of municipal solid waste as measured on a calendar quarter basis.

"Commenced" means that an owner has undertaken a continuous program of construction or modification or that an owner has entered into a contractual obligation to undertake and complete, within a reasonable time, a continuous program of construction or modification.

"Compliance schedule" means a legally enforceable schedule specifying a date or dates by which a source or category of sources must comply with specific emission standards contained in a plan or with any increments of progress to achieve such compliance.

"Construction" means fabrication, erection, or installation of an affected facility.

"Continuous emission monitoring system" means a monitoring system for continuously measuring the emissions of a pollutant from an affected facility.

"Dioxin/furan" means tetra- through octa- chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans.

"First calendar half" means the period starting on January 1 and ending on June 30 in any year.

"Four-hour block average" means the average of all hourly emission concentrations when the affected facility is operating and combusting municipal solid waste measured over four-hour periods of time from midnight to 4 a.m., 4 a.m. to 8 a.m., 8 a.m. to noon, noon to 4 p.m., 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., and 8 p.m. to midnight.

"Increments of process" means steps to achieve compliance which must be taken by an owner of an affected facility, including:

1. Submittal of a final control plan for the affected facility to the board;

2. Awarding of contracts for emission control systems or for process modifications or issuance of orders for the purchase of component parts to accomplish emission control or process modification;

3. Initiation of on-site construction or installation of emission control equipment or process change;

4. Completion of on-site construction or installation or emission control equipment or process change; and

5. Final compliance.

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

"Mass burn rotary waterwall municipal waste combustor" means a field-erected combustor that combusts municipal solid waste in a cylindrical rotary waterwall furnace or on a tumbling-tile grate.

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

"Materials separation plan" means a plan that identifies both a goal and an approach to separate certain components of municipal solid waste for a given service area in order to make the separated materials available for recycling. A materials separation plan may include elements such as dropoff facilities, buy-back or deposit-return incentives, curbside pickup programs, or centralized mechanical separation systems. A materials separation plan may include different goals or approaches for different subareas in the service area, and may include no materials separation activities for certain subareas or, if warranted, an entire service area.

"Maximum demonstrated municipal waste combustor unit load" means the highest four-hour arithmetic average municipal waste combustor unit load achieved during four consecutive hours during the most recent dioxin/furan emission test demonstrating compliance with the applicable limit for municipal waste combustor organics specified under 9VAC5-40-8040.

"Maximum demonstrated particulate matter control device temperature" means the highest four-hour arithmetic average flue gas temperature measured at the particulate matter control device inlet during four consecutive hours during the most recent dioxin/furan emission test demonstrating compliance with the applicable limit for municipal waste combustor organics specified under 9VAC5-40-8040.

"Modification" or "modified municipal waste combustor unit" means a municipal waste combustor unit to which changes have been made after June 19, 1996, if (i) the cumulative cost of the changes, over the life of the unit, exceed 50% of the original cost of construction and installation of the unit (not including the cost of any land purchased in connection with such construction or installation) updated to current costs or (ii) any physical change in the municipal waste combustor unit or change in the method of operation of the municipal waste combustor unit increases the amount of any air pollutant emitted by the unit for which standards have been established under § 129 or § 111 of the federal Clean Air Act. Increases in the amount of any air pollutant emitted by the municipal waste combustor unit are determined at 100% physical load capability and downstream of all air pollution control devices, with no consideration given for load restrictions based on permits or other nonphysical operational restrictions.

"Modular excess-air municipal waste combustor" means a combustor that combusts municipal solid waste and that 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 combustor" means a combustor that combusts municipal solid waste and that 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, and institutional waste, or a combination thereof. Household waste includes material discarded by single and multiple residential dwellings, hotels, motels, and other similar permanent or temporary housing establishments or facilities. 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 material discarded by schools, nonmedical waste discarded by hospitals, material discarded by nonmanufacturing activities at prisons and government facilities, and material discarded by other similar establishments or facilities. Household, commercial/retail, and institutional waste does not include used oil; sewage sludge; wood pallets; construction, renovation, and demolition wastes (which includes but is not limited to railroad ties and telephone poles); clean wood; industrial process or manufacturing wastes; medical waste; or motor vehicles (including motor vehicle parts or vehicle fluff). Household, commercial/retail, and institutional wastes include (i) yard waste, (ii) refuse-derived fuel, and (iii) motor vehicle maintenance materials limited to vehicle batteries and tires except as specified in 9VAC5-40-7950 D 5.

"Municipal waste combustor" or "municipal waste combustor unit" means any setting or equipment that combusts solid, liquid, or gasified municipal solid waste including, but not limited to, field-erected incinerators (with or without heat recovery), modular incinerators (starved-air or excess-air), boilers (i.e., steam generating units), furnaces (whether suspension-fired, grate-fired, mass-fired, air curtain incinerators, or fluidized bed-fired), and pyrolysis/combustion units. Municipal waste combustors do not include pyrolysis/combustion units located at a plastics/rubber recycling unit (as specified in 9VAC5-40-7950 D 8). Municipal waste combustors do not include cement kilns firing municipal solid waste (as specified in 9VAC5-40-7950 E 3). Municipal waste combustors do not include internal combustion engines, gas turbines, or other combustion devices that combust landfill gases collected by landfill gas collection systems.

The boundaries of a municipal solid waste combustor are defined as follows. The municipal waste combustor unit includes, but is not limited to, the municipal solid waste fuel feed system, grate system, flue gas system, bottom ash system, and the combustor water system. The municipal waste combustor boundary starts at the municipal solid waste pit or hopper and extends through:

1. The combustor flue gas system, which ends immediately following the heat recovery equipment or, if there is no heat recovery equipment, immediately following the combustion chamber;

2. The combustor bottom ash system, which ends at the truck loading station or similar ash handling equipment that transfer the ash to final disposal, including all ash handling systems that are connected to the bottom ash handling system; and

3. The combustor water system, which starts at the feed water pump and ends at the piping exiting the steam drum or superheater.

The municipal waste combustor unit does not include air pollution control equipment, the stack, water treatment equipment, or the turbine-generator set.

"Municipal waste combustor acid gases" means all acid gases emitted in the exhaust gases from municipal waste combustor units including, but not limited to, sulfur dioxide and hydrogen chloride gases.

"Municipal waste combustor metals" means metals and metal compounds emitted in the exhaust gases from municipal waste combustor units.

"Municipal waste combustor organics" means organic compounds emitted in the exhaust gases from municipal waste combustor units and includes tetra- through octa- chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans.

"Municipal waste combustor plant" means one or more affected facilities (as specified in 9VAC5-40-7950) at the same location.

"Municipal waste combustor unit capacity" means the maximum charging rate of a municipal waste combustor unit expressed in tons per day of municipal solid waste combusted, calculated according to the procedures under 9VAC5-40-8100 C. 9VAC5-40-8100 C includes procedures for determining municipal waste combustor unit capacity for continuous and batch feed municipal waste combustors.

"Municipal waste combustor unit load" means the steam load of the municipal waste combustor unit measured as specified in 9VAC5-40-8150 C 6.

"Particulate matter" means total particulate matter emitted from municipal waste combustor units as measured by Reference Method 5 (see 9VAC5-40-8140 B).

"Plastics/rubber recycling unit" means an integrated processing unit where plastics, rubber, and rubber tires, or a combination thereof, are the only feed materials (incidental contaminants may be included in the feed materials) and they are processed into a chemical plant feedstock or petroleum refinery feedstock, where the feedstock is marketed to and used by a chemical plant or petroleum refinery as input feedstock. The combined weight of the chemical plant feedstock and petroleum refinery feedstock produced by the plastics/rubber recycling unit on a calendar quarter basis shall be more than 70% of the combined weight of the plastics, rubber, and rubber tires processed by the plastics/rubber recycling unit on a calendar quarter basis. The plastics, rubber, or rubber tire feed materials to the plastics/rubber recycling unit may originate from the separation or diversion of plastics, rubber, or rubber tires from MSW or industrial solid waste, and may include manufacturing scraps, trimmings, and off-specification plastics, rubber, and rubber tire discards. The plastics, rubber, and rubber tire feed materials to the plastics/rubber recycling unit may contain incidental contaminants (e.g., paper labels on plastic bottles, metal rings on plastic bottle caps, etc.).

"Potential hydrogen chloride emission concentration" means the hydrogen chloride emission concentration that would occur from combustion of municipal solid waste in the absence of any emission controls for municipal waste combustor acid gases.

"Potential mercury emission concentration" means the mercury emission concentration that would occur from combustion of municipal solid waste in the absence of any mercury emissions control.

"Potential sulfur dioxide emissions" means the sulfur dioxide emission concentration that would occur from combustion of municipal solid waste in the absence of any emission controls for municipal waste combustor acid gases.

"Pulverized coal/refuse-derived fuel mixed fuel-fired combustor" means a combustor that fires 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 fired in suspension. This includes both conventional pulverized coal and micropulverized coal.

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

"Reconstruction" means rebuilding a municipal waste combustor unit for which the reconstruction commenced after June 19, 1996, and the cumulative costs of the construction over the life of the unit exceed 50% of the original cost of construction and installation of the unit (not including any cost of land purchased in connection with such construction or installation) updated to current costs (current dollars).

"Refractory unit" or "refractory wall furnace" means a combustion unit having no energy recovery (e.g., via a waterwall) in the furnace (i.e., radiant heat transfer section) of the combustor.

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

"Refuse-derived fuel stoker" means a steam generating unit that combusts refuse-derived fuel in a semisuspension firing mode using air-fed distributors.

"Same location" means the same or contiguous property that is under common ownership or control including properties that are 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 including any municipality or other governmental unit, or any quasi-governmental authority (e.g., a public utility district or regional waste disposal authority).

"Second calendar half" means the period starting July 1 and ending on December 31 in any year.

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

"Spreader stoker coal/refuse-derived fuel mixed fuel-fired combustor" means a combustor that fires 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" means a temperature of 20 degrees Centigrade and a pressure of 101.3 kilopascals.

"Total mass dioxin/furan" or "total mass" means the total mass of tetra- through octa- chlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and dibenzofurans, as determined using Reference Method 23 and the procedures specified under 9VAC5-40-8140 F.

"Tumbling-tile" means a grate tile hinged at one end and attached to a ram at the other end. When the ram extends, the grate tile rotates around the hinged edge.

"Twenty-four-hour daily average" means either the arithmetic mean or geometric mean (as specified) of all hourly emission concentrations when the affected facility is operating and combusting municipal solid waste measured over a 24-hour period 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." Pressure-treating compounds include, but are not limited to, chromate copper arsenate, pentachlorophenol, and creosote.

"Waterwall furnace" means a combustion unit having energy (heat) recovery in the furnace (i.e., radiant heat transfer section) of the combustor.

"Yard waste" means grass, grass clippings, bushes, shrubs, and clippings from bushes and shrubs that are generated by residential, commercial/retail, institutional, and industrial sources, or combination thereof, as part of maintenance activities associated with yards or other private or public lands. Yard waste does not include construction, renovation, and demolition wastes, which are exempt from the definition of municipal solid waste in this section. Yard waste does not include clean wood, which is exempt from the definition of municipal solid waste in this section.

Historical Notes

Derived from Volume 15, Issue 21, eff. August 4, 1999; amended, Virginia Register Volume 19, Issue 17, eff. July 1, 2003.

Statutory Authority

§ 10.1-1308 of the Code of Virginia.