Act No. 199

Public Acts of 2005

Approved by the Governor

November 10, 2005

Filed with the Secretary of State

November 10, 2005

EFFECTIVE DATE: November 22, 2005

STATE OF MICHIGAN

93RD LEGISLATURE

REGULAR SESSION OF 2005

Introduced by Reps. Acciavatti, Pavlov, Booher and Palmer

ENROLLED HOUSE BILL No. 5149

AN ACT to amend 1994 PA 451, entitled "An act to protect the environment and natural resources of the state; to codify, revise, consolidate, and classify laws relating to the environment and natural resources of the state; to regulate the discharge of certain substances into the environment; to regulate the use of certain lands, waters, and other natural resources of the state; to prescribe the powers and duties of certain state and local agencies and officials; to provide for certain charges, fees, assessments, and donations; to provide certain appropriations; to prescribe penalties and provide remedies; and to repeal acts and parts of acts," by amending sections 11701, 11702, and 11715b (MCL 324.11701, 324.11702, and 324.11715b), sections 11701 and 11702 as amended and section 11715b as added by 2004 PA 381.

The People of the State of Michigan enact:

Sec. 11701. As used in this part:

(a) "Agricultural land" means land on which a food crop, a feed crop, or a fiber crop is grown, including land used or suitable for use as a range or pasture; a sod farm; or a Christmas tree farm.

(b) "Certified health department" means a city, county, or district department of health certified under section11716.

(c) "Cesspool" means a cavity in the ground that receives waste to be partially absorbed directly or indirectly by the surrounding soil.

(d) "Department" means the department of environmental quality or its authorized agent.

(e) "Director" means the director of the department of environmental quality or his or her designee.

(f) "Domestic septage" means liquid or solid material removed from a septic tank, cesspool, portable toilet, type III marine sanitation device, or similar storage or treatment works that receives only domestic sewage. Domestic septage does not include liquid or solid material removed from a septic tank, cesspool, or similar facility that receives either commercial wastewater or industrial wastewater and does not include grease removed from a grease interceptor, grease trap, or other appurtenance used to retain grease or other fatty substances contained in restaurant waste.

(g) "Domestic sewage" means waste and wastewater from humans or household operations.

(h) "Domestic treatment plant septage" means biosolids generated during the treatment of domestic sewage in a treatment works and transported to a receiving facility or managed in accordance with a residuals management program approved by the department.

(i) "Food establishment septage" means material pumped from a grease interceptor, grease trap, or other appurtenance used to retain grease or other fatty substances contained in restaurant wastes and which is blended into a uniform mixture, consisting of not more than 1 part of that restaurant-derived material per 3 parts of domestic septage, prior to land application or disposed of at a receiving facility.

(j) "Fund" means the septage waste program fund created in section 11717.

(k) "Governmental unit" means a county, township, municipality, or regional authority.

(l) "Incorporation" means the mechanical mixing of surface-applied septage waste with the soil.

(m) "Injection" means the pressurized placement of septage waste below the surface of soil.

(n) "Operating plan" means a plan developed by a receiving facility for receiving septage waste that specifies at least all of the following:

(i) Categories of septage waste that the receiving facility will receive.

(ii) The receiving facility's service area.

(iii) The hours of operation for receiving septage waste.

(iv) Any other conditions for receiving septage waste established by the receiving facility.

(o) "Pathogen" means a disease-causing agent. Pathogen includes, but is not limited to, certain bacteria, protozoa, viruses, and viable helminth ova.

(p) "Peace officer" means a sheriff or sheriff's deputy, a village or township marshal, an officer of the police department of any city, village, or township, any officer of the Michigan state police, any peace officer who is trained and certified pursuant to the commission on law enforcement standards act, 1965 PA 203, MCL 28.601 to 28.616, or any conservation officer appointed by the department or the department of natural resources pursuant to section 1606.

(q) "Portable toilet" means a receptacle for human waste temporarily in a location for human use.

(r) "Receiving facility" means a structure that is designed to receive septage waste for treatment at a wastewater treatment plant or at a research, development, and demonstration project authorized under section 11511b to which the structure is directly connected, and that is available for that purpose as provided for in an ordinance of the local unit of government where the structure is located or in an operating plan. Receiving facility does not include either of the following:

(i) A septic tank.

(ii) A structure or a wastewater treatment plant at which the disposal of septage waste is prohibited by order of the department under section 11708 or 11715b.

(s) "Receiving facility service area" or "service area" means the territory for which a receiving facility has the capacity and is available to receive and treat septage waste, subject to the following:

(i) Beginning October 12, 2005 and before the 2011 state fiscal year, the geographic service area of a receiving facility shall not extend more than 15 radial miles from the receiving facility.

(ii) After the 2010 state fiscal year, the geographic service area of a receiving facility shall not extend more than
25 radial miles from the receiving facility.

(t) "Sanitary sewer cleanout septage" means sanitary sewage or cleanout residue removed from a separate sanitary sewer collection system that is not land applied and that is transported by a vehicle licensed under this part elsewhere within the same system or to a receiving facility that is approved by the department.

(u) "Septage waste" means the fluid mixture of untreated and partially treated sewage solids, liquids, and sludge of human or domestic origin that is removed from a wastewater system. Septage waste consists only of food establishment septage, domestic septage, domestic treatment plant septage, or sanitary sewer cleanout septage, or any combination of these.

(v) "Septage waste servicing license" means a septage waste servicing license as provided for under sections 11703 and 11706.

(w) "Septage waste vehicle" means a vehicle that is self-propelled or towed and that includes a tank used to transport septage waste. Septage waste vehicle does not include an implement of husbandry as defined in section 21 of the Michigan vehicle code, 1949 PA 300, MCL 257.21.

(x) "Septage waste vehicle license" means a septage waste vehicle license as provided for under sections 11704 and 11706.

(y) "Septic tank" means a septic toilet, chemical closet, or other enclosure used for the decomposition of domestic sewage.

(z) "Service" or "servicing" means cleaning, removing, transporting, or disposing, by application to land or otherwise, of septage waste.

(aa) "Site" means a location or locations on a parcel or tract, as those terms are defined in section 102 of the land division act, 1967 PA 288, MCL 560.102, proposed or used for the disposal of septage waste on land.

(bb) "Site permit" means a permit issued under section 11709 authorizing the application of septage waste to a site.

(cc) "Storage facility" means a structure that receives septage waste for storage but not for treatment.

(dd) "Tank" means an enclosed container placed on a septage waste vehicle to carry or transport septage waste.

(ee) "Type I public water supply", "type IIa public water supply", "type IIb public water supply", and "type III public water supply" mean those terms, respectively, as described in R325.10502 of the Michigan administrative code.

(ff) "Type III marine sanitation device" means that term as defined in 33 CFR 159.3.

Sec. 11702. (1) A person shall not engage in servicing or contract to engage in servicing except as authorized by a septage waste servicing license and a septage waste vehicle license issued by the department pursuant to part 13. A person shall not contract for another person to engage in servicing unless the person who is to perform the servicing has a septage waste servicing license and a septage waste vehicle license.

(2) The septage waste servicing license and septage waste vehicle license requirements provided in this part are not applicable to a publicly owned receiving facility subject to a permit issued under part 31 or section 11511b.

Sec. 11715b. (1) The department shall promulgate rules establishing design and operating requirements for receiving facilities and the control of nuisance conditions.

(2) A person shall not commence construction of a receiving facility on or after the date on which rules are promulgated under subsection (1) unless the owner has a permit from the department authorizing the construction of the receiving facility. The application for a permit shall include a basis of design for the receiving facility, engineering plans for the receiving facility sealed by an engineer licensed to practice in Michigan, and any other information required by the department. If the proposed receiving facility will be part of a sewerage system whose construction is required to be permitted under part 41 or a research, development, and demonstration project whose construction and operation is required to be permitted under section 11511b, the permit issued under part 41 or part 115, respectively, satisfies the permitting requirement of this subsection.

(3) Subject to subsection (4), a person shall not operate a receiving facility contrary to an operating plan approved by the department.

(4) If the operation of a receiving facility commenced before October 12, 2004, subsection (3) applies to that receiving facility beginning October 12, 2005.

(5) Before submitting a proposed operating plan to the department for approval, a person shall do all of the following:

(a) Publish notice of the proposed operating plan in a newspaper of general circulation in the area where the receiving facility is located.

(b) If the person maintains a website, post notice of the proposed operating plan on its website.

(c) Submit notice of the proposed operating plan by first-class mail to the county health department and the legislative body of each city, village, and township located in whole or in part within the service area of the receiving facility.

(6) Notice of a proposed operating plan under subsection (5) shall contain all of the following:

(a) A statement that the receiving facility proposes to receive or, in the case of a receiving facility described in subsection (4), to continue to receive septage waste for treatment.

(b) A copy of the proposed operating plan or a statement where the operating plan is available for review during normal business hours.

(c) A request for written comments on the proposed operation of the receiving facility and the deadline for receipt of such comments, which shall be not less than 30 days after publication, posting, or mailing of the notice.

(7) After the deadline for receipt of comments under subsection (6), the person proposing to operate a receiving facility may modify the plan in response to any comments received and shall submit a summary of the comments and the current version of the proposed operating plan to the department for approval.

(8) The operator of a receiving facility may modify an approved operating plan if the modifications are approved by the department. Subsections (5) to (7) do not apply to the modification of the operating plan.

(9) If the owner or operator of a receiving facility violates this section or rules promulgated under this section, after providing an opportunity for a hearing, the department may order that a receiving facility cease operation as a receiving facility.

(10) The department shall post on its website both of the following:

(a) Approved operating plans, including any modifications under subsection (8).

(b) Notice of any orders under subsection (9).

(11) If construction of a receiving facility commenced before the date on which rules are promulgated under subsection (1), all of the following apply:

(a) Within 1 year after the date on which rules are promulgated under subsection (1), the owner of the receiving facility shall submit to the department and obtain department approval of a report prepared by a professional engineer licensed to practice in Michigan describing the receiving facility's state of compliance with the rules and proposing any modifications to the receiving facility necessary to comply with the rules.

(b) If, according to the report approved under subdivision (a), modifications to the receiving facility are necessary to comply with the rules promulgated under subsection (1), within 18 months after the report is approved under subdivision (a), the owner of the receiving facility shall submit to the department engineering plans for modifying the receiving facility and shall obtain a construction permit from the department for modifying the receiving facility.

(c) Within 3 years after the report is approved under subdivision (a), the owner of the receiving facility shall complete construction modifying the receiving facility so that it complies with those rules.

(12) After a hearing, the department may order that a receiving facility whose owner fails to comply with this section cease operating as a receiving facility.

Enacting section 1. This amendatory act does not take effect unless all of the following bills of the 93rd Legislature are enacted into law:

(a) Senate Bill No. 747.

(b) House Bill No. 5148.

This act is ordered to take immediate effect.

Clerk of the House of Representatives

Secretary of the Senate

Approved

Governor