The Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries’ (ISRI) West Coast Chapter and several scrap facilities have filed a complaint against California’s Department of Toxic Substances Control’s (DTSC’s) requirement to obtain hazardous waste facility permits.
The complaint has sought an injunction to prevent the department from requiring scrap industries to apply for hazardous waste treatment permits. It also seeks to bar related enforcement actions upon metal processing operations being subject to hazardous waste treatment permit requirements.
ISRI and the scrap facilities have alleged that DTSC’s utilization of the state’s hazardous waste control law for metal processing operations is an attempt to regulate metal processing operations as “treatment” of “hazardous waste” contrary to applicable laws, regulations and long-standing DTSC policy and practice.
The complaint, which was filed in late November in California’s Superior Court, argues that DTSC’s enforcement of this law on scrap facilities is likely to result in the loss of scrap metal recycling capacity in the state along with disruption of an industry that provides critical infrastructure services to California.
Metals processing operations, according to the complaint, fall outside the scope of the hazardous waste control law because metal processing that is done to separate and remove valuable ferrous and non-ferrous metals from exempt scrap metal does not involve any form of waste management.