Item D - Hazardous Substance Spills Ordinance - Draft

Chapter 36 Hazardous Substance Spills Purpose To reduce the risk of harm and danger to the public health, safety, and welfare from the release, leaks, and/or spills of hazardous substances, these regulations are promulgated to establish responsibility for the notification, treatment, removal, and cleanup of hazardous substance spills within the City limits. Definitions: 1. “Cleanup” means actions necessary to contain, collect, control, identify, analyze, clean up, treat, disperse, remove, or dispose of a hazardous substance. Iowa Code § 455B.381(1) (2021). 2. “Hazardous condition” means any situation involving the actual, imminent or probable spillage, leakage, or release of a hazardous substance onto the land, into a water of the State or into the atmosphere which creates an immediate or potential danger to the public health or safety or to the environment. (Iowa Code § 455B.381(4) (2021)). 3. “Hazardous substance” means any substance or mixture of substances that presents a danger to the public health or safety and includes, but is not limited to, a substance that is toxic, corrosive, or flammable, or that is an irritant or that generates pressure through decomposition, heat, or other means. “Hazardous substance” may include any hazardous waste identified or listed by the administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency under the Solid Waste Disposal Act as amended by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1976, or any toxic pollutant listed under section 307 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act as amended to January 1, 1977, or any hazardous substance designated under Section 311 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act as amended to January 1, 1977, or any hazardous material designated by the Secretary of Transportation under the Hazardous Materials Transportation Act. (Iowa Code § 455B.381(5) (2021)). 4. a. “Person having control over a hazardous substance” means a person who at any time produces, handles, stores, uses, transports, refines, or disposes of a hazardous substance the release of which creates a hazardous condition, including bailees, carriers, and any other person in control of a hazardous substance when a hazardous condition occurs, whether the person owns the hazardous substance or is operating under a lease, contract, or other agreement with the legal owner of the hazardous substance. b. “Person having control over a hazardous substance” does not include a person who holds indicia of ownership in a hazardous condition site, if the person satisfies all of the following: (1) Holds indicia of ownership primarily to protect that person's security interest in the hazardous condition site, where the indicia of ownership was acquired either for the purpose of securing payment of a loan or other indebtedness, or in the course of protecting the security interest. The term “primarily to protect that person's security interest” includes but is not limited to ownership interests acquired as a consequence of that person exercising rights as a security interest holder in the hazardous condition site, where the exercise is necessary or appropriate to protect the security interest, to preserve the value of the collateral, or to recover a loan or indebtedness secured by the interest.