§ 30:2204 — Hazardous waste sites; cleanup

§2204. Hazardous waste sites; cleanup
A.(1) Whenever any owner, operator, or responsible person of any site
obtains information that indicates hazardous waste or hazardous waste
constituents are leaching, spilling, discharging, or otherwise moving in, into,
within, or on any land, subsurface strata, water, or air, such person shall notify
the department in accordance with regulations to be adopted. This notification
requirement shall apply to leaching, spilling, discharging, or moving of
hazardous waste or hazardous waste constituents occurring hereafter although
the hazardous waste or hazardous waste constituents were heretofore present
at the site.
(2) Upon receipt of the information required to be provided in
Paragraph (1) of this Subsection, the secretary may order any owner, operator,
or responsible person to test, monitor, and analyze to ascertain the nature and
extent of any hazard and require such owner, operator, or responsible person
to contain, abate, or clean up the site, or the secretary may undertake such
activities and order an investigation of the site, take samples to be analyzed by
the department, or may expend monies from the Hazardous Waste Site
Cleanup Fund for these purposes. Any person ordered by the secretary to
undertake certain actions as provided herein on property outside a facility's
boundary shall either obtain permission from the owner of the property to
perform such required actions or, if unable to obtain the owner's permission,
request the secretary to order access to the property for the purpose of
performing such required actions. In those cases where the secretary orders
any owner, operator, or responsible person to test, monitor, and analyze to
ascertain the nature and extent of such hazard, the order shall require the
person to whom such order is issued to submit to the secretary within thirty
days from the issuance of such order a proposal for carrying out the required
monitoring, testing, and analysis.
(3) The goal of such regulations is to eliminate those releases that may
reasonably pose a threat to human health or the environment and to remediate
contaminated media, taking into consideration current and expected uses.
B. Any failure or refusal by an owner or operator or responsible person
to undertake such action as ordered by the secretary to test, monitor, analyze,
contain, abate, or clean up a hazardous waste site shall be a violation of this
Subtitle, and the secretary, in order to prevent damage to the public health and
environment, may immediately declare the site abandoned, notwithstanding the
provisions of R.S. 30:2225 or commence appropriate action or initiate
proceedings under R.S. 30:2025, including the recovery of penalties,
revocation of any permit, closure of the site, or any combination thereof.
C. A "hazardous waste site" as used in this Section includes the entire
contaminated area and may extend beyond a facility's boundary.
D. Repealed by Acts 1992, No. 669, §2.

Legislative History

Added by Acts 1980, No. 194, §17. Amended by Acts 1981, No. 702, §2, eff. July 23, 1981; Acts 1982, No. 799, §1, eff. Aug. 4, 1982; Acts 1983, No. 97, §1, eff. Feb. 1, 1984; Acts 1983, No. 459, §1, eff. July 6, 1983; Acts 1984, No. 674, §1; Acts 1986, No. 329, §1, eff. June 30, 1986; Acts 1991, No. 666, §1, eff. July 17, 1991; Acts 1992, No. 122, §1; Acts 1992, No. 669, §2; Acts 1999, No. 303, §1, eff. June 14, 1999.