Terms Used In Vermont Statutes Title 10 Sec. 6603

  • Contract: A legal written agreement that becomes binding when signed.
  • 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
  • Municipality: shall include a city, town, town school district, incorporated school or fire district or incorporated village, and all other governmental incorporated units. 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
  • transportation: means the movement of wastes by air, rail, highway, or water. 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

§ 6603. Secretary; powers

In addition to any other powers conferred on him or her by law, the Secretary shall have the power to:

(1) Adopt, amend, and repeal rules pursuant to 3 Vt. Stat. Ann. chapter 25 implementing the provisions of this chapter.

(2) Issue compliance orders as may be necessary to effectuate the purposes of this chapter and enforce the same by all appropriate administrative and judicial proceedings.

(3) Encourage local units of government to manage solid waste problems within their respective jurisdictions or by contract on a cooperative regional or interstate basis.

(4) Provide technical assistance to municipalities.

(5) Contract in the name of the State for the service of independent contractors under bond, or with an agency or department of the State, or a municipality, to perform services or to provide facilities necessary for the implementation of the State plan, including the transportation and disposition of solid waste.

(6) Accept, receive, and administer grants or other funds or gifts from public and private agencies, including the federal government, for the purpose of carrying out any of the functions of this chapter. This would include the ability to convey such grants or other funds to municipalities or other instruments of State or local government.

(7) Prepare a report that proposes methods and programs for the collection and disposal of household quantities of hazardous waste. The report shall compare the advantages and disadvantages of alternate programs and their costs. The Secretary shall undertake a voluntary pilot project to determine the feasibility and effectiveness of such a program when in the Secretary’s opinion such can be undertaken without undue risk to the public health and welfare. Such pilot program may address one or more forms of hazardous waste.

(8) Provide financial assistance to municipalities.

(9) Manage the hazardous wastes generated, transported, treated, stored, or disposed in the State by administering a regulatory and management program that, at a minimum, meets the requirements of subtitle C of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976 and amendments thereto, codified as 42 U.S.C. Chapter 82, subchapter 3, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, as amended.

(10) Require a facility permitted under section 6605 of this title or a transporter permitted under section 6607 of this title to explain its rate structure for different categories of waste to ensure that the rate structure is transparent to residential consumers. (Added 1977, No. 106, § 1; amended 1983, No. 148 (Adj. Sess.), § 2; 1989, No. 30, § 2, eff. April 27, 1989; 2011, No. 148 (Adj. Sess.), § 3.)