Section 27-0912. Land disposal of hazardous waste

1.  The  commissioner may promulgate rules and regulations restricting
  or prohibiting the land disposal of specified hazardous wastes which are
  identified or listed pursuant to section 27-0903 of this  title.    Such
  rules  and  regulations may also restrict or prohibit the storage of any
  hazardous waste, or classes of hazardous wastes, which is restricted  or
  prohibited  from one or more methods of land disposal under this section
  unless such storage is solely for the purpose  of  the  accumulation  of
  such quantities of hazardous waste as are necessary to facilitate proper
  recovery, treatment, or disposal.
    2.  The  commissioner  shall make a written determination of each such
  waste or class of wastes for which land burial  may  not  be  adequately
  protective  of  public  health  and  the environment. In making any such
  determination, the commissioner shall take into  account  the  following
  factors:
    a.  the  long-term  containment  uncertainties  associated  with  land
  burial, and
    b. characteristics of the hazardous waste  which  degrade  containment
  mechanisms  used  in  authorized hazardous waste land burial facilities,
  and
    c.  the   persistence,   toxicity,   mobility,   and   propensity   to
  bio-accumulate of such hazardous wastes and their toxic constituents.
    3.  The commissioner may, upon application of any person, certify that
  any specifically identified or listed hazardous waste or class of wastes
  is  exempt  from  a  restriction  or  prohibition  against  land  burial
  established  in  the  rules and regulations promulgated pursuant to this
  section. Such certification of exemption may be issued only in the event
  the  commissioner  makes  a  written  determination  that  it   is   not
  practicable,  for  the  reasonably  foreseeable  future,  to manage such
  wastes by  any  means  other  than  land  burial,  when  public  health,
  environmental    and   economic   factors   are   considered   together.
  Certificates of exemptions shall be valid for a fixed term not to exceed
  one year. Any such certificate of exemption shall be  published  in  the
  environmental  notice bulletin. Any request for a renewal, reissuance or
  recertification of exemption shall be treated as an  application  for  a
  new certificate of exemption.
    4.  As  used in this section, the term "land disposal" shall be deemed
  to include, but not be limited to, any placement of hazardous waste in a
  landfill,  surface  impoundment,  waste  pile,  injection   well,   land
  treatment   facility,  salt  dome  formation,  salt  bed  formation,  or
  underground mine or cave; and the term "land burial" means any placement
  of hazardous waste in or on land  where  the  waste  will  remain  after
  closure. "Land burial" is a form of "land disposal".
    5.  Any  rules  and  regulations,  and  any amendments thereof adopted
  pursuant to the provisions of this section shall be  subject  to  review
  pursuant to article seventy-eight of the civil practice law and rules.