BEFORE THE ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
In the Matter of
PROPOSED AMENDMENTS TO
SPECIAL WASTE REGULATIONS
CONCERNING USED OIL,
35.
Ill. Adm. Code, 808, 809
NOTICE
OF FILING
To:
ATTACHED SERVICE LIST
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE
that on May 16, 2006 we filed the attached
PRE-FILED
TESTIMONY OF MIKE LENZ
with Dorothy
Gum, Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control
Board, a copy of which is herewith served upon you.
Respectfully submitted,
NORA, AN ASSOCIATION OF RESPONSIBLE
RECYCLERS
By:
//Claire A. Manning
Claire A. Manning, one of its attorneys
BROWN, HAY
&
STEPHENS, LLP
Claire A. Manning, Esq.
Registration No. 3 124724
205
S. Fifth Street, Suite 700
P.O. Box 2459
Springfield, IL 62705-2459
(21 7) 544-8491
(217) 241-3111 (fax)
Cmannin~iii,bhslaw.com
ELECTRONIC FILING, RECEIVED, CLERK'S OFFICE, MAY 16, 2006
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
The undersigned
ceTtifies that a copy of the foregoing
PRE-FILED TESTIMONY OF
MIKE LENZ
was filed, electronically, with the Clerk of the Illinois Pollution Control Board,
and with copies of such rule proposal being placed in the U.S. mail on May 16, 2006 and
addressed to:
DOROTHY GUNN
Clerk of the Board
Illinois Pollution Control Board
100 W. Randolph Street, Suite 11-500
Chicago, Illinois 60601
TIM FOX
Hearing Officer
Illinois
Pollutioil Control Board
100 W. Randolph Street, Suite
1
1-500
Chicago, Illinois 60601
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
Stephanie Flowers
Division of Legal Counsel
1021 North Grand Avenue
P.O. Box 19276
Springfield, Illinois 62794-9276
ILLLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES
William Richardson
Chief Legal Counsel
One Natural Resources Way
Springfield, Illinois 62702-1271
OFFICE OF THE ILLINOIS ATTORNEY GENERAL
Matthew J.
Dunn
188 W. Randolph St., 20" Floor
Chicago, Illinois 60601
ILLINOIS ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATORY GROUP
Deirdre
K.
Hirner
Executive Director
3
150 Roland Avenue
Springfield, Illinois 62703
ELECTRONIC FILING, RECEIVED, CLERK'S OFFICE, MAY 16, 2006
BEFORE THE ILLINOIS POLLUTION CONTROL BOARD
In the Matter of
1
1
SPECIAL WASTE REGULATIONS
1
R06-20
CONCERNING USED OIL,
1
35.
Ill.
Adin. Code, 808, 809
1
1
PRE-FILED TESTIMONY OF MIKE LENZ
My
name is Mike Lenz. I have been involved in the used oil industry, in one form or
another. my entire life. My father owns a
small used oil recycling company in Illinois
Currently, I am a consultant for Future Environmental, a
used oil transporting and marketing
company which does business in Illinois, Iowa, Indiana and Michigan. As a consultant, I handle
most of Future's compliance issues.
Future Environmental is a
member of NORA. Personally, I have been involved with
NORA since its beginning,
in 1985. I've served on the Board of Directors and co-chaired the
Government
Alfairs Committee, which deals with government regulation of the used oil
industry
Future's customers are
lacilities which generate used oil and can be anything from a
home to a service station, car dealer, or factory.
I estimate that Future has approximately 10,000
generator customers in
Illinois alone.
Future also
markets to end users, those facilities that
utilize the used oil. I estimate that Future
has at least 50 end user customers,
15 of whom are
ill
Illinois.
I wish to thank the Board for the opportunity to appear before it in support of the
proposed rule changes offered by NORA and conceptually supported by the Illinois
ELECTRONIC FILING, RECEIVED, CLERK'S OFFICE, MAY 16, 2006
Environmental Protection Agency. The changes would eliminate the need to comply with
special waste manifesting and hauling permitting for used oil that is managed in accordance with
Part 739. Mandating compliance with special waste manifesting and permit hauling for used oil,
which is managed under Illinois Administrative Code Part 739, is overly burdensome and, for no
good reason, creates and requires compliance with two separate tracking systems.
The cost of manifesting is two-fold: one is the direct individual cost of the
manifest itself
and the mailing costs. The other cost is associated with time. The time it takes for a generator,
recycler, driver, and office personnel to deal with paperworlc requirements for special waste
manifesting for used oil is incredible. While manifesting is technically
the generator's
responsibility, in the used oil industry the reality is that the generator is not prepared to furnish
and properly fill
out
the manifest. It has been a responsibility taken on, then, by the recycler.
We estimate it
takes about two minutes of an employee's
time to fully handle a manifest from
start to finish. This translates to over six hours a day of our employee's time. Also, the IEPA
charges $3.00 per manifest. We estimate that
the daily manifest purchase costs necessary to
comply with the
IEPA's interpretation that Part 808 and 809 manifesting applies to the used oil
industry is approximately $600 per day of operation. A driver can
make up to 10 -20 pickups a
day from generators.
The IEPA interprets the current Part 808 and 809 rules to require 10
-
20
individual manifests to be
filled
out
-
one at each stop. Any given day in Illinois,
Future alone
has 20 drivers. Since the office personnel is supposed to handle and mail a copy of the manifest
back to the generator, that's 600 manifests and mailings our office person deals with everyday.
This paperworlc is on top of a system that already requires tracking of all collections and
transport of
used oil, pursuant to the federal program and Illinois
Acln~inistrative
Code Part 739.
In other words, Part 739 requires traclcing so any material managed as
used oil under that part
ELECTRONIC FILING, RECEIVED, CLERK'S OFFICE, MAY 16, 2006
must be tracked in accordance with that part. Each company develops their own system of
tracking, that best fits their business, but all of them that I know are well aware of,
and comply
with, the tracking requirements of Part 739. Most states follow only the federal program, and
require tracking pursuant to that
program, and do not require special waste tracking - as does
Illinois.
NORA assists members in developing traclcing programs which comply with the federal
regulations. As an example
of how this tracking
works, let me explain the following. Future has
an
illdividual
piclc up
ticket that it receives at each generating source of the used oil. The ticket
will reflect the address of the source, the company or other name of the source, and it will bear
the signature of
the person or company
who generated the used oil, along
with the date of
the
pick-up. A
pick-LIP
log is created as well, and the driver logs every pick up from every generator
on the
p~clc
up log. There is a load
form for each truck, and the
piclc
up tickets are attached for
each pick-up. The forms also designate where the truck took the used oil. These
docuinents are
all retained at our offices.
The paperwork
requiren~ents
of Part 739, as I explained, are completely protective as
they tell where every batch was picked up from and require traclcing by us as to where that oil is
going to. In
inany ways Part 739 is even more protective than special waste manifesting,
because Part 739 requires tracking from the source to the end user, where manifesting only
tracks
it from the generator to the recycler. While the federal requirements (and corresponding Part
739) are generally complete when a recycler certifies that the oil is "on spec", even then
he has
to have documentation showing where it goes from there.
ELECTRONIC FILING, RECEIVED, CLERK'S OFFICE, MAY 16, 2006
There is simply no reason to require manifesting for used oil under Part 808 and 809
-
for
materials that are handled pursuant to Part 739. This is especially
true since special waste
manifests are not even tracked by the IEPA.
For similar reasons, the used hauling permit requirements of Part 739 are also redundant.
As a company, we
fully expect to have a state used oil
identiying number, but there is absolutely
no reason to have hauling permits for each separate vehicle
-
and we believe that the Agency is
in agreement on this point. Due to this extra cost for vehicle and even each semi trailer, our
annual special waste hauling permit costs are over $1,400.
Following are other examples of how, in the used oil industry, the Part 808 and 809
regulations conflict with the policies and provisions of Part 739:
To properly
fill
out the special waste manifest a generator
necds a generator or ID
number from the state. Often we
gct a call from a
paniclcing generator, sometimes
an individual residence or
rarm, with an overflowing container of used oil. We
dispatch a truck to the site
lor pickup and often find
out that generator doesn't
have a number. Legally, we cannot pick up the oil until they get one. This
encourages improper storage or potential disposal of used oil and is inconsistent
with federal policy and rules.
Also, mobile sites have been a problem. Normally, with a larger construction site,
maintenance of equipment can be done on site -usually just a field somewhere.
In
ihc case of road construction, these sites move to a new area once
evcry so
often. IEPA issued generator numbers are site-specific. Therefore, you can
ELECTRONIC FILING, RECEIVED, CLERK'S OFFICE, MAY 16, 2006
understand problems we face in utilizing special waste manifests in these
instances.
Future Environmental as well as many other companies are using transfer
facilities for transportation and consolidation of used oil prior to transferring to an
end user or used oil processor. Under the special waste manifest requirements,
the final processing marketing or burning facility must be listed as the destination
on the original manifest. This is inconsistent with used oil transport and
processing, however, because the end point is not always known upon collection.
For
example, tests
might be performed to analyze the oil collected
in a single tank
at a recycling transfer facility and the results of
such analysis will often dictate
where the oil needs to go. If the product is off-spec or
has a high water content, it
may need to go to used oil processor for further processing; if it tests on-spec and
has less water content it can be marketed directly to
an end user. Therefore, when
oil is picked up
from generator, the final destination for
that oil is often unknown,
making it next to impossible to accurately fill
out the special waste manifest.
Also, for business reasons,
even where there is a defined end user, it is neither
advantageous or necessary for the
used oil transporter to be required to give that
information to the generator.
For a period of time, instead of required to-the-letter compliance with the special
waste manifesting requirements for
used oil (perhaps in recognition of the fact
that the special waste requirements do not fit used oil transportation), the IEPA
allowed the used oil industry in Illinois to utilize what we called a "multi-stop"
procedure. While this procedure allowed
us to fill out a manifest for each load,
ELECTRONIC FILING, RECEIVED, CLERK'S OFFICE, MAY 16, 2006
not each generator, there were major problems with this procedure. In effect, the
used oil recycler was listed as the generator. For various reasons, the IEPA has
stopped allowing the use of this procedure, making this rulemaking all the more
necessary.
The necessity for requiring special waste manifesting and hauling permits for used oil
managed in accordance with the federal program is inconsistent with the way surrounding states
handle compliance with the federal program and therefore creates burdens for doing business in
Illinois. The neighboring states of Iowa and Indiana simply require adherence to the federal
rules. While Michigan requires manifesting, the manifest requirement is per load, not per
generator,
The federal program was developed because used oil has a great deal of value and, when
handled as a
comnlodity, in accordance with Part 739, it is not a waste. 'She federal regulations
require tracking that adequately protects the environment and, in the
cvent of a bad actor, allows
the regulators to "track" the problem.
Again, I wish to thank the Board
for allowing NORA the opportunity to present this
rulemaking proposal. NORA has been seeking this change for
many years and I am very hopeful
that the day has come where Illinois recognizes that special waste manifesting and special
hauling permits are
not necessary for the transport of
used oil which is governed by federal used
oil rules, which have been adopted by the
Poll~ltion
Control Board, as identical-in-substance state
regulations, in Part 739. Thank you.
ELECTRONIC FILING, RECEIVED, CLERK'S OFFICE, MAY 16, 2006
Respectfully submitted,
IdMike Lenz
BROWN, HAY
&
STEPHENS, LLP
Claire
A.
Manning, Esq.
Registration No. 3
124724
205
S. Fifth Street, Suite 700
P.O. Box 2459
Springfield, IL
62705-2459
(21 7) 544-8491
(217) 241-3111 (fax)
Cmanning@bhslaw.com
ELECTRONIC FILING, RECEIVED, CLERK'S OFFICE, MAY 16, 2006
