Environmental agency seeks expanded lien, reclamation and hazardous-waste authority in AB 40 hearing

The Assembly Committee on Natural Resources heard Assembly Bill 40 on Feb. 28, a multi-part bill from the Nevada Division of Environmental Protection (NDEP) that would expand the agency’s ability to recover state costs, clarify mine reclamation authority and update solid and hazardous-waste law to reflect emerging recycling industries.

NDEP Administrator Jennifer Karp and her deputies told the committee the bill has three primary areas: mine reclamation (NRS chapter 519A), solid waste (NRS chapter 444) and hazardous waste (NRS chapter 459). Key provisions in the division’s conceptual amendment would let NDEP temporarily suspend part of a reclamation permit and assume management of process fluids when a permit holder cannot safely manage fluids and an imminent danger exists; clarify the state’s role reviewing federal reclamation plans; and authorize the state to file liens on real and personal property at facilities to secure recovery of public expenditures when financial assurance is deficient.

Rick Perdomo, deputy administrator, said the suspension authority integrates notice and due-process requirements, conditions reinstatement on corrective action completion and repayment of state funds, and allows suspension of parts of a permit rather than an entire permit. He said lien language was drawn from statutes used in other states to secure recovery of public reclamation expenditures and offset the state’s risk when financial assurance is insufficient or when bankruptcy complicates cost recovery. Jeff Kinder, deputy administrator for the Sustainable Materials Management Bureau, outlined proposed changes to solid-waste law to define “solid waste management facility,” establish financial-assurance requirements for such facilities, and remove the federal allowance that lets very small-quantity generators of hazardous waste dispose of that waste in municipal landfills.

Kinder also said the hazardous-waste portion would update the statute to emphasize management (including recycling and recovery) rather than only treatment and disposal, add a recycling definition, encourage proper battery handling and adjust definitions so the law better accommodates recycling industries while preserving protections for health and the environment. NDEP characterized the conceptual amendment as the result of stakeholder discussions and provided a redline-style conceptual amendment for the committee’s review.

Support testimony included the Nevada Mining Association, which said it had worked with the division to refine language to avoid undue burden on responsible operators while strengthening environmental and fiscal protections. The Nevada Battery Coalition and Redwood Materials testified in support, citing the collaborative stakeholder process.

Opposition was limited to proposed technical amendments. Great Basin Resource Watch urged a stronger definition of “stabilize” so division stabilization must prevent degradation of waters of the state, and an independent consultant requested language to make the division share liability if the division’s stabilization proved more harmful than the violator’s actions. NDEP said it sought to keep the stabilization definition streamlined to cover all environmental media (air, land and water) and indicated willingness to consider stakeholder language.

NDEP officials said four hazardous-waste-related sections and one mining emergency-order section were identified as triggering the two‑thirds legislative-vote requirement because they relate to cost recovery and reimbursements to the hazardous-waste fund, though the division said the clarifications do not expand existing authority but rather provide a clearer framework for recycling and recovery.

The committee received the testimony and closed the hearing on AB 40; no committee vote on the bill was taken at this meeting.