1285-I - Commercial and industrial waste audits.

§  1285-i.  Commercial and industrial waste audits. a. The corporation  shall establish and be responsible for administration  of  a  commercial  and  industrial  waste  audit  program  to  help businesses identify and  evaluate the potential at their New York  facilities  for  reducing  the  amount  of  solid  waste  generated,  increasing  new materials recovery  programs and otherwise reducing the amount of waste ultimately requiring  disposal. The corporation shall in implementing said waste audit program  coordinate activities  with  and  actively  foster  the  waste  exchange  program  of  the  corporation  and  other waste reduction programs as is  appropriate, and is  further  authorized  to  obtain  the  services,  as  necessary, of waste management specialists to conduct such waste audits.    b.  In implementing the commercial and industrial waste audit program,  the corporation shall:    (i) establish an application process consistent  with  the  rules  and  regulations of the program;    (ii)  establish  by  rule  and  regulation a commercial and industrial  solid waste audit program application  evaluation  procedure  consistent  with the requirements of this section; and    (iii)  establish  by  rule  and regulation, upon consultation with the  director of the budget, a sliding fee schedule to offset  the  costs  of  the  audit.  The fee schedule established pursuant to this section shall  be intended to provide revenues sufficient  to  meet  solely  the  costs  incurred  by  the corporation in performing such audits. The chairman is  authorized and directed to deposit all money received in payment of fees  under this section  in  an  account  within  the  miscellaneous  special  revenue fund.    c.  Waste  audits  conducted  pursuant to this section may include but  need not be limited to identification of:    (i) all waste generated within the facility;    (ii) the regulatory requirements associated with the  recovery,  reuse  or disposal of such waste, and the implications of such requirements for  various reduction and reuse options;    (iii)  any  methodologies, processes, equipment, or production changes  that could be utilized to reduce  the  amount  of  waste  generated  and  consumer   waste   resulting   from  the  product,  process  or  service  manufactured, distributed or sold;    (iv) on site recycling or waste treatment technologies that  could  be  utilized to reduce the need for waste disposal capacity;    (v)  potential  markets for waste generated by the facility, including  local materials recycling programs, and the ability of such  markets  to  readily absorb the wastes generated by such facility; and    (vi) economic practicality of alternative waste reduction strategies.    d.  Any  person  for  whom  a waste audit is prepared shall within one  hundred eighty days submit to the corporation findings with  respect  to  the  report  and  the  status  of  steps  to  implement  any recommended  strategies identified in such audit.    e. Beginning January first, nineteen hundred eighty-nine, the chairman  shall  make  an  annual  report  concerning  the  activities  undertaken  pursuant  to  this  section  which  shall  include, at a minimum (i) the  number of businesses which  received  assistance,  (ii)  the  nature  of  assistance  provided  through  the  programs,  (iii)  needs and problems  confronted by such businesses in establishing and implementing programs,  and (iv) the number of businesses  which  applied  for  assistance.  The  chairman shall submit to the director of the division of the budget, the  chairman and the ranking minority member of the senate finance committee  and  the  chairman  and the ranking minority member of the assembly ways  and means committee an evaluation of the program prepared by  an  entity  independent  of  the  authority.  Such  evaluation shall be submitted bySeptember first, nineteen hundred ninety and by  September  first  every  two years thereafter.