Public Works Department — Hazardous Materials Safety Interpretation

Page 1:* U.S. Department of Transportation Washington, D.C. 400 Seventh Street, S.W. 20590 special Program dministratior JUN 2 | 2000 Mr. Dave Vail County of Olmsted Ref. No. 00-0042 Public Works Department 2122 Campus Drive SE Rochester, MN 55904-4744 Dear Mr. Vail: This is in response to your letter dated January 31, 2000, regarding the Hazardous Materials Regulations (HMR; 49 CFR Parts 171-180) as they apply to household hazardous waste. The collection program is government operated and the facilities and equipment are government owned. You stated that the Minnesota DOT has a regional household waste collection program, which consists of four counties in Southeastern Minnesota. The collection program consists of one permanent facility and one semi-truck and trailer (mobile facility), which collects household waste in various parts of the region. The counties that are part of the regional collection partnership sometimes bill each other for various services, such as providing a truck to perform scheduled event collections around the area. The partner in your collection area does not charge for transportation, but charges (i.e., counties reimburse each other) for the time the employee is on the road, to and from these collections, and the time the employee is helping administer the collection. Specifically, you asked, what "in commerce" means, and whether being reimbursed for travel time constitutes being "in commerce" The HMR do not apply to the transportation of household hazardous waste collected by the governmentally operated Southeastern Minnesota household hazardous waste collection program. The HMR apply to those entities covered by the definition of a "person", in § 171.8, which includes a government offering hazardous material for transportation "in commerce" or transporting hazardous material "in furtherance of a commercial enterprise." Accordingly, a government employee who is 000042#

Page 2..: transporting hazardous material for a non-commercial purpose in the course of his/her employment for a governmental entity, is not subject to the HMR. Whether the counties that are part of the regional collection partnership sometimes reimburse each other for various services, they are jointly conducting a non-commercial enterprise that is not considered to be transportation in commerce. Therefore, the HMR do not apply to this transportation.. I hope this satisfies your inquiry. If we can be of further assistance, please contact us. Sincerely, Delmer F. Billings Office of Hazardous Materials Standards Chief, Standards Development Sta pot! V20040 00-#

Page 3engrum S171.1 COUNTY OF PUBLIC WORKS DEPARTMENT Glinsted 2122 CAMPUS DR SE 507/285-8231 ROCHESTER MN 55904-4744 00 - 0042 Date: 1-31-00 Delmer Billings U.S. DOT 400 7* Street SW Office of Hazmat Standards Washington, DC 20590-0001 Dear Mr. Billings, Our program is seeking your guidance on the request of the Minnesota Department of Transportation. We are a regional household hazardous waste collection program. The region consists of four counties in Southeastern Minnesota. We currently employ one permanent facility and one semi-truck and trailer (mobile facility) to collect waste in the region. I understand that when a county employee is driving a county vehicle and is on official county business that the employee is considered to not be "in commerce" and thus is not required but is encouraged to abide by DOT hazardous: waste transportation. guidelines. We would like clarification of the "in commerce" rule. The counties that are part of our regional collection partnership sometimes charge each other for various services, one of these services is providing the collection truck to perform scheduled event collections around the regional collection area. Although the partner who owns the truck in our collection region does not charge for transportation per say, the partner does charge for the time the employee is on the road, on the way to and on the back from, event collections, as well as the time the employee is helping administer the collection. Because we are being charged for travel time, does this constitute being "in commerce"? Please keep in mind that processing of collected household hazardous waste does occur at many of the collections. Therefore much of the material being transported is "waste" and is not usable product. Dave Vail Olmsted County Hazardous Waste Specialist Phone: (507) 287-2470 Fax: (507) 287-2320 recycied paper AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY/AFFIRMATIVE ACTION EMPLOYER recyctable Administration Building Maintenance Surveying and Mapping Engineering Highway Maintenance Parks & Agriculture Solid W#