This section makes it an offense to handle hazardous waste in specified prohibited ways, including moving it without required permits or a manifest, improper storage or disposal, false filings, record destruction, disabling required controls, improper releases, and failing to notify or report.
Sec. 7.162. VIOLATIONS RELATING TO HAZARDOUS WASTE. (a) A person commits an offense if the person, acting intentionally or knowingly with respect to the person's conduct: (1) transports, or causes or allows to be transported, for storage, processing, or disposal, any hazardous waste to any location that does not have all required permits; (2) stores, processes, exports, or disposes of, or causes to be stored, processed, exported, or disposed of, any hazardous waste without all permits required by the appropriate regulatory agency or in knowing violation of any material condition or requirement of a permit or of an applicable interim status rule or standard; (3) omits or causes to be omitted material information or makes or causes to be made any false material statement or representation in any application, label, manifest, record, report, permit, plan, or other document filed, maintained, or used to comply with any requirement of Chapter 361, Health and Safety Code, applicable to hazardous waste; (4) generates, transports, stores, processes, or disposes of, or otherwise handles, or causes to be generated, transported, stored, processed, disposed of, or otherwise handled, hazardous waste, whether the activity took place before or after September 1, 1981, and who knowingly destroys, alters, conceals, or does not file, or causes to be destroyed, altered, concealed, or not filed, any record, application, manifest, report, or other document required to be maintained or filed to comply with the rules of the appropriate regulatory agency adopted under Chapter 361, Health and Safety Code; (5) transports without a manifest, or causes or allows to be transported without a manifest, any hazardous waste required by rules adopted under Chapter 361, Health and Safety Code, to be accompanied by a manifest; (6) tampers with, modifies, disables, or fails to use required pollution control or monitoring devices, systems, methods, or practices, unless done in strict compliance with Chapter 361, Health and Safety Code, or with an order, rule, or permit of the appropriate regulatory agency; (7) releases, causes, or allows the release of a hazardous waste that causes or threatens to cause pollution, unless the release is made in strict compliance with all required permits or an order, rule, or permit of the appropriate regulatory agency; or (8) does not notify or report to the appropriate regulatory agency as required by Chapter 361, Health and Safety Code, or by a rule adopted or an order or a permit issued by the appropriate regulatory agency under that chapter. (b) An offense under Subsection (a)(1) or (a)(2) is punishable for an individual under Section 7.187(1)(B) or Section 7.187(2)(G) or both. An offense under Subsection (a)(3), (a)(4), or (a)(5) is punishable for an individual under Section 7.187(1)(B) or Section 7.187(2)(E) or both. An offense under Subsection (a)(6), (a)(7), or (a)(8) is punishable for an individual under Section 7.187(1)(C) or Section 7.187(2)(D) or both. (c) If it is shown on the trial of an individual that the individual has been previously convicted of an offense under this section, an offense under Subsection (a)(1) or (a)(2) is punishable for an individual under Section 7.187(1)(C) or Section 7.187(2)(G) or both, and an offense under Subsection (a)(3), (a)(4), or (a)(5) is punishable for an individual under Section 7.187(1)(C) or Section 7.187(2)(F) or both. (d) An offense under Subsection (a)(1), (a)(2), (a)(3), (a)(4), or (a)(5) is punishable for a person other than an individual under Section 7.187(1)(D). If it is shown on the trial of a person other than an individual that the person previously has been convicted of an offense under Subsection (a)(1), (a)(2), (a)(3), (a)(4), or (a)(5), the offense is punishable under Section 7.187(1)(E). An offense under Subsection (a)(6), (a)(7), or (a)(8) is punishable for a person other than an individual under Section 7.187(1)(D). Added by Acts 1997, 75th Leg., ch. 1072, Sec. 2, eff. Sept. 1, 1997.