AB 2474: Hazardous waste: identification: testing.

Existing law requires the Department of Toxic Substances Control to regulate the handling and management of hazardous waste. Existing law requires the department to develop and adopt by regulation criteria and guidelines for the identification of hazardous wastes and extremely hazardous wastes. Existing regulations adopted pursuant to that provision provide that a waste exhibits the characteristic of toxicity if representative samples of the waste have any of specified properties, including, among others, that a concentration of the waste of less than 500 milligrams per liter in soft water results in a 50% mortality rate of specified fish species after 96 hours of exposure, pursuant to specified procedures.

This bill would authorize the department, to the extent that funds are available for this purpose, to evaluate any of specified tests to determine whether the tests can be adapted to be appropriate for use in identifying substances as hazardous waste or extremely hazardous waste, consistent with the requirements of the hazardous waste control laws. The bill would require the department, if it finds that any of the specified tests can be adapted, to authorize the use of each test found appropriate, as adapted, as an alternative to the fish mortality testing method described above.