Section 305. Facility design and operational management regulations.
The department shall establish by regulation minimum engineering design and operational management criteria for the regional facility. These criteria shall be in addition to those required by regulations adopted under the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. Shallow land burial, as defined in this act, is prohibited. An above-land grade facility is required unless other designs provide significant improvement in recoverability, monitoring, public health and environmental protection. The facility shall have the goal of a zero release capacity. The criteria shall include, but not be limited to, provisions for enhanced containment, recoverability, long-term passive isolation, minimization of risks from water intrusion, protection from inadvertent intruders, monitoring and special requirements for various classes of wastes which shall include, but not be limited to, provisions for the segregation and recoverability of Class C waste. The Environmental Quality Board shall hold at least one public information meeting and at least one public hearing on the regulations, and shall solicit and take into consideration written public comments, prior to final adoption. There shall be 30 days' public notice before the hearings. Notice shall, at a minimum, be provided in the Pennsylvania Bulletin and in newspapers of general circulation in each county.
Compiler's Note: Section 502(c) of Act 18 of 1995, which created the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and renamed the Department of Environmental Resources as the Department of Environmental Protection, provided that the Environmental Quality Board shall have the powers and duties currently vested in it, except as vested in the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources by Act 18 of 1995, which powers and duties include those set forth in section 305.