Vermont Statutes Title 10 Sec. 6610a
Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 10 Sec. 6610a
- Damages: Money paid by defendants to successful plaintiffs in civil cases to compensate the plaintiffs for their injuries.
- Disposal: means the discharge, deposit, injection, dumping, spilling, leaking, emitting, or placing of any solid waste or hazardous waste into or on any land or water so that such solid waste or hazardous waste or any constituent thereof may enter the environment or be emitted into the air or discharged into any ground or surface waters. See
- Facility: means all contiguous land, structures, other appurtenances, and improvements on the land, used for treating, storing, or disposing of waste. See
- Hazardous waste: means any waste or combination of wastes of a solid, liquid, contained gaseous, or semi-solid form, including those that are toxic, corrosive, ignitable, reactive, strong sensitizers, or that generate pressure through decomposition, heat, or other means, that in the judgment of the Secretary may cause or contribute to an increase in mortality or an increase in serious irreversible or incapacitating reversible illness, taking into account the toxicity of such waste, its persistence and degradability in nature, and its potential for assimilation, or concentration in tissue, and other factors that may otherwise cause or contribute to adverse acute or chronic effects on the health of persons or other living organisms, or any matter that may have an unusually destructive effect on water quality if discharged to ground or surface waters of the State. See
- Injunction: An order of the court prohibiting (or compelling) the performance of a specific act to prevent irreparable damage or injury.
- Person: means any individual; partnership; company; corporation; association; unincorporated association; joint venture; trust; municipality; the State of Vermont or any agency, department, or subdivision of the State; federal agency; or any other legal or commercial entity. See
- Secretary: means the Secretary of Natural Resources or his or her duly authorized representative. See
- Solid waste: means any discarded garbage; refuse; septage; sludge from a waste treatment plant, water supply plant, or pollution control facility; and other discarded material, including solid, liquid, semi-solid, or contained gaseous materials resulting from industrial, commercial, mining, or agricultural operations and from community activities but does not include animal manure and absorbent bedding used for soil enrichment; high carbon bulking agents used in composting; or solid or dissolved materials in industrial discharges that are point sources subject to permits under the Water Pollution Control Act, chapter 47 of this title. See
- State: when applied to the different parts of the United States may apply to the District of Columbia and any territory and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. See
- Storage: means the actual or intended containment of wastes, either on a temporary basis or for a period of years, in such a manner as not to constitute disposal of such wastes. See
- transportation: means the movement of wastes by air, rail, highway, or water. See
- Treatment: means any method, technique, or process, including neutralization, designed to change the physical, chemical, or biological character or composition of any hazardous or solid waste, so as to neutralize such waste, or so as to recover energy or material resources from the waste, or so as to render such waste safer for transport, amenable for recovery, amenable for storage, or reduced in volume, or for hazardous wastes, so as to render such waste nonhazardous. See
- Waste: means a material that is discarded or is being accumulated, stored, or physically, chemically, or biologically treated prior to being discarded or has served its original intended use and is normally discarded or is a manufacturing or mining by-product and is normally discarded. See
§ 6610a. Enforcement
(a) Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the Secretary, upon receipt of information that the storage, transportation, treatment, or disposal of any solid waste or hazardous waste may present a hazard to the health of persons or to the environment or may be in violation of any provision of this chapter, the rules adopted under this chapter, or the terms or conditions of any order or certification issued under this chapter, may take such action as the Secretary determines to be necessary. The action the Secretary may take includes:
(1) After notice and opportunity for hearing, issuing an order directing any person to take such steps as are necessary to prevent the act, correct the condition, or eliminate the practice that constitutes such hazard or violation. Such action may include, with respect to a facility or site, permanent or temporary cessation of operation.
(2) Requesting that the Attorney General or appropriate State‘s Attorney commence an action for injunctive relief, or for the imposition of penalties and fines as provided in section 6612 of this title and other relief as appropriate. The court may issue a temporary injunction or order in any such proceedings and may exercise all the plenary powers available to it in addition to the power to:
(A) enjoin future activities;
(B) order the design, construction, installation, or operation of abatement of facilities or alternate disposal systems;
(C) order removal of all wastes and restoration of the environment and health;
(D) fix and order compensation for any public property destroyed, damaged, or injured;
(E) assess and award punitive damages; and
(F) order reimbursement to any agency of federal, state, or local government from any person whose act caused governmental expenditures under section 1283 of this title.
(3) Other enforcement action authorized under chapter 201 or 211 of this title.
(b) The hearing by the Secretary under subdivision (a)(1) of this section shall be conducted as a contested case. The Secretary may issue an emergency order without a prior hearing when an ongoing violation presents an immediate threat of substantial harm to the environment or an immediate threat to the public health. An emergency order shall be effective upon actual notice to the person against whom the order is issued. Any person to whom an emergency order is issued shall be given the opportunity for a hearing within five business days of the date the order is issued.
(c) This subsection shall apply only to facilities subject to exemption from the provisions of chapter 151 of this title, as provided by the provisions of subsection 6081(h) of this title. With respect to facilities subject to this subsection, notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, the Secretary may take such action as the Secretary determines to be necessary, upon receipt of information that the storage, transportation, treatment, or disposal of any solid waste or hazardous waste may present a hazard to the health of persons or to the environment or may be in violation of any provision of this chapter, the rules adopted under this chapter, or the terms or conditions of any order or certification issued under this chapter, or upon receipt of information that a solid waste disposal facility has failed to perform closure and post-closure operations as deemed necessary by the Secretary to preserve and protect the air, groundwater, surface water, public health, and the environment. The action the Secretary may take includes:
(1) After notice and opportunity for hearing, issuing an order directing any person to take such steps as are necessary to prevent the act, correct the condition, or eliminate the practice that constitutes such hazard or violation. Such action may include, with respect to a facility or site, permanent or temporary cessation of operation.
(2) Requesting that the Attorney General or appropriate State’s Attorney commence an action for injunctive relief, or for the imposition of penalties and fines as provided in section 6612 of this title and other relief as appropriate. The court may issue a temporary injunction or order in any such proceedings and may exercise all the plenary powers available to it in addition to the power to:
(A) enjoin future activities;
(B) order the design, construction, installation, or operation of abatement facilities or alternate disposal systems, final cover systems and lining measures, monitoring, reporting and evaluation, remediation measures, financial responsibility and capability mechanisms, and other requirements deemed necessary and no less stringent than minimum program requirements by the Secretary;
(C) order removal of all wastes and restoration of the environment and health;
(D) fix and order compensation for any public property destroyed, damaged, or injured;
(E) assess and award punitive damages; and
(F) order reimbursement to any agency of federal, state, or local government from any person whose act caused governmental expenditures under section 1283 of this title. (Added 1983, No. 148 (Adj. Sess.), § 7; amended 1987, No. 78, § 13; 1987, No. 282 (Adj. Sess.), § 19; 1993, No. 208 (Adj. Sess.), § 5; 2015, No. 97 (Adj. Sess.), § 37; 2017, No. 113 (Adj. Sess.), § 49; 2019, No. 131 (Adj. Sess.), § 31.)