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OLR Bill Analysis
sSB 80
AN ACT CONCERNING THE BURNING OF MEDICAL WASTE.
SUMMARY
This bill requires anyone incinerating treated or untreated hospital,
medical, or infectious waste, or accepting this waste for incineration, (i.e.
incinerators) to have a Department of Energy and Environmental
Protection (DEEP) permit that sets emissions requirements that are no
less stringent than specified U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) standards. The bill’s requirements apply to all applicable
incinerators, including specified incinerators that are exempt from these
EPA emission standards under federal regulation. Under the bill, if
more stringent federal or state standards are established in the future,
those standards will apply to these incinerators.
Under the bill, within 180 days of its passage, owners or operators of
facilities burning any amount of this waste must (1) run continuous
emissions monitors for mercury and hydrochloric acid and (2)
continuously sample for dioxins and furans to get back-to-back monthly
samples. These owners and operators must post the monitoring and
sampling data on their websites.
EFFECTIVE DATE: Upon passage
APPLICABLE INCINERATORS
The bill’s provisions apply to anyone incinerating treated (autoclaved
or subjected to other technology that reduces or eliminates infectious
properties) or untreated hospital, medical, or infectious waste, as those
terms are defined in EPA regulations. Specifically, this is waste
generated:
1. at a hospital, other than human corpses, remains, and anatomical
parts intended for interment or cremation (hospital waste); or 2025SB-00080-R000665-BA.DOCX
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2. in diagnosing, treating, or immunizing human beings or animals,
in conducting related research, or in producing or testing
specified biologicals (e.g., cultures from medical labs, human
pathological waste, and sharps), with certain exceptions (medical
or infectious waste).
The bill additionally specifies that, for the purpose of these permits,
its requirements apply to the following incinerators that are exempt
from the EPA regulations described below:
1. co-fired combustors (units that incinerate hospital, medical, or
infectious waste with other fuels or wastes, like municipal solid
waste, where the hospital, medical, or infectious waste makes up
10% or less (by weight) of the fuel feed stream as measured on a
quarterly basis), subject to certain notification and record keeping
requirements;
2. combustors required to have a permit under the federal Solid
Waste Disposal Act;
3. municipal waste combustors that meet certain federal
applicability requirements; and
4. pyrolysis units (units that use external energy for the
endothermic gasification of hospital, medical, or infectious
waste).
Under the EPA regulations, additional incinerators are exempt from
its emissions standards, specifically:
1. combustors that only incinerate pathological waste, low-level
radioactive waste, or chemotherapeutic waste, subject to certain
notification and record keeping requirements; and
2. cement kilns firing hospital, medical, or infectious waste.
EPA EMISSION REQUIRE MENTS
Under the bill, the applicable incinerators must operate under a
DEEP-issued permit that sets emissions requirements that are at least as 2025SB-00080-R000665-BA.DOCX
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stringent as those established in the specified EPA regulations as of
January 1, 2025 (“Emissions Limits for Small, Medium, and Large
HMWI at Affected Facilities, as Defined in Section 60.50c(a)(3) and (4)”;
40 C.F.R. § Pt. 60, Subpt. Ec, Tbl. 1B). (“HMWI” refers to
hospital/medical/infectious waste incinerators, which includes any
device that combusts hospital, medical, or infectious waste.)
These regulations generally set emissions limits for pollutants
(particulate matter, carbon monoxide, dioxins or furans, hydrogen
chloride, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, lead, cadmium, and mercury)
that depend on the incinerator’s size. They specify requirements for
measuring these emissions and demonstrating compliance.
BACKGROUND
DEEP Air Emissions Permits
DEEP issues a number of air quality permits under its existing
statutory and regulatory authority. The agency’s new source review
(NSR) permit program, in particular, regulates air emissions from new
and modified stationary sources, including incinerators for which
construction started on or after June 1, 2009, with certain exceptions.
NSR permits are issued to an individual piece of equipment at a
premises. The permit contains equipment design specifications;
operational limitations; monitoring, record keeping, and reporting
requirements; testing schedules; and emission limitations to ensure that,
at a minimum, emissions comply with state and federal criteria and
pollutant and hazardous air pollutant regulations, and that the
proposed activity will not cause any significant deterioration of air
quality.
COMMITTEE ACTION
Environment Committee
Joint Favorable Substitute
Yea 24 Nay 6 (03/24/2025)