10.1-1428 - Financial responsibility for abandoned facilities; penalties.
§ 10.1-1428. Financial responsibility for abandoned facilities; penalties.
A. The Board shall promulgate regulations which ensure that, if a facility inwhich hazardous waste is stored, treated, or disposed is closed or abandoned,the costs associated with protecting the public health and safety from theconsequences of such abandonment may be recovered from the person abandoningthe facility.
B. Such regulations may include bonding requirements, the creation of a trustfund to be maintained within the Department, self-insurance, other forms ofcommercial insurance, or other mechanisms that the Department deemsappropriate. Regulations governing the amount thereof shall take intoconsideration the potential for contamination and injury by the hazardouswaste, the cost of disposal of the hazardous waste and the cost of restoringthe facility to a safe condition.
C. No state agency shall be required to comply with such regulations.
D. Forfeiture of any financial obligation imposed pursuant to this sectionshall not relieve any holder of a permit issued pursuant to this article ofany other legal obligations for the consequences of abandonment of anyfacility.
E. Any funds forfeited pursuant to this section and the regulations of theBoard shall be paid over to the Director, who shall then expend the forfeitedfunds as necessary to restore and maintain the facility in a safe condition.Nothing in this section shall require the Director to expend funds from anyother source to carry out the activities contemplated under this section.
F. Any person who knowingly and willfully abandons a hazardous wastemanagement facility without proper closure or without providing adequatefinancial assurance instruments for such closure shall, if such failure toclose results in a significant harm or an imminent and substantial threat ofsignificant harm to human health or the environment, be liable to theCommonwealth and any political subdivision for the costs incurred in abating,controlling, preventing, removing, or containing such harm or threat.
Any person who knowingly and willfully abandons a hazardous waste managementfacility without proper closure or without providing adequate financialassurance instruments for such closure shall, if such failure to closeresults in a significant harm or an imminent and substantial threat ofsignificant harm to human health or the environment, be guilty of a Class 4felony.
(1986, c. 492, § 10-281; 1988, c. 891; 1991, c. 702; 2005, c. 180.)