Section 22-27-9 Authority of Department of Environmental Management and Department of Public Health.

(a) The Department of Environmental Management shall be the agency with primary regulatory authority over the management of solid waste in the state, except for the collection and transportation of nonhazardous and nonmedical solid waste. The department may exercise the regulatory authority over the permitting and operation of solid waste management facilities necessary to enforce the requirement and purposes of this article. (b) The Alabama Department of Public Health shall have primary regulatory authority over the collection and transportation of solid waste, excluding medical waste and hazardous waste, the management of sanitary waste in septic tanks, excluding landfill disposal, and the management of collection activities including, but not limited to, the provision of collection services by county and municipal governing bodies, participation in local collection systems, the temporary retainment of solid waste on the generator’s own property, not constituting storage, and any containers, or container systems used in the collection of solid waste, such as bulk refuse receptacles, dumpsters, roll-off containers, and household collection carts. The State Board of Health may adopt rules necessary to enforce the requirements of this article. (c) The State Health Officer and the Director of the Alabama Department of Environmental Management shall ensure that their responsibilities under this article are consistently and equitably applied.