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1252 OF 2008
(November 27)
Official Journal No. 47,186 of 27 November 2008
CONGRESS OF THE REPUBLIC
For which prohibitive environmental standards are dictated, concerning hazardous waste and waste and other provisions are dictated.
COLOMBIA CONGRESS
DECRETA:
OBJECT, PRINCIPLES, PROHIBITION, TRAFFIC, AND INFRASTRUCTURE.
ARTICLE 1o. OBJECT. This law will have as its regular object, within the framework of the integral management and ensuring the protection of human health and the environment, everything related to the import and export of hazardous waste in the territory national, as laid down in the Basel Convention and its annexes, assuming responsibility for minimising the generation of hazardous waste at source, opting for cleaner production policies; providing adequate disposal of the hazardous waste generated within the national territory, as well as responsible disposal of the stocks of these within the country. It also regulates the infrastructure to be provided by customs authorities and free zones and port areas, in order to detect effectively the introduction of these wastes and to extend the sanctions brought by the Law 99 of 1993 for who violates the content of the present.
ARTICLE 2o. PRINCIPLES. In order to establish the scope and content of this law, the following principles shall be addressed:
1. To deal with due diligence the prohibition of the entry and trafficking of hazardous waste from other countries. The State shall be responsible for the entry of goods which, with another nomination, seeks to introduce any form of hazardous waste or waste and shall sanction, in accordance with the law, persons who attempt to enter waste with their conduct dangerous under another nomination.
2. Minimize hazardous waste generation by applying environmentally clean technologies and implementing comprehensive hazardous waste plans.
3. Prohibit the generation, storage or disposal of hazardous waste or waste in strategic or important ecosystems in the country in protected areas or sensitive ecological affections, areas of influence of wetlands or protection zones; Freshwater recharge or in seas or oceans.
4. Design appropriate, clean and efficient plans, systems and processes for the treatment, storage, transportation, reuse and final disposal of hazardous waste that will be used to care for human health and the environment.
5. Implement strategies and actions to replace polluting production processes with clean processes, induce technological innovation or reconversion, good manufacturing practices or the transfer of appropriate technologies, specialised human resources to support, study and apply the appropriate economic instruments to national conditions to induce change in production processes and patterns of consumption.
6. To pursue a cleaner production policy as a business strategy, in order to generate awareness and social responsibility that includes the joint work between the State, the company, the Academy and the community for its design and execution, which involve public information as a pillar of the comprehensive management of hazardous waste.
7. Make the most of the hazardous waste that can be returned to the production cycle as a raw material, thus reducing the costs of treatment and final disposal.
8. Develop plans and activities in accordance with the Environmental Policy for the Integral Management of Hazardous Waste or Waste that solve the serious problems that lead to the generation and inadequate handling of hazardous waste.
9. Increase wealth by encouraging the creation of sources of income and jobs, increasing the competitiveness of sectors and improving the environmental performance of all actors and social sectors that generate and manage hazardous waste.
10. To develop national and sectoral efforts to eliminate stocks of disused and abandoned hazardous waste that pose risks to human health and the environment.
11. To manage internationally the final processing and disposal of hazardous wastes that are not within the scope of national technology.
12. Generate efficient models of hazardous waste management, which, with the support of engineering and available technology, approach the country's environmental reality and serve as tools for prevention, surveillance and contingency.
ARTICLE 3o. DEFINITIONS. In addition to the definitions set out in Decree 4741 of 2005 issued by the Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development and its Annexes, the following shall be taken into account:
Disaster: It is a natural or man-made fact that negatively affects life or the environment, often leading to permanent changes to human societies, ecosystems and the environment in general.
Emergency: It is a situation caused by a disaster that can be controlled locally without the need to add measures or changes in the procedure. It appears when, in the combination of known factors, a phenomenon or event arises that was not expected, eventual, unexpected and unpleasant, which can cause damage or undesirable negative alterations in human health and the environment, without exceeding the response capacity of the affected community.
Stocks: These are all hazardous waste used as raw materials for an industrial process, which have not been fully consumed and remain abandoned or disused within the facility. generator or in burials.
Hazardous Waste Manager: Natural or legal person providing the services of collection, transport, treatment, use or final disposal of hazardous waste within the framework of comprehensive management and complying with the requirements of the current regulations.
Internal Management: It is the action developed by the generator that involves the coverage, planning and implementation of all activities related to minimization, generation, segregation, internal movement, storage and/or treatment of hazardous waste within its facilities.
External management: It is the action developed by the hazardous waste manager that involves the coverage and planning of all activities related to the collection, transport, treatment, exploitation and/or final disposal of hazardous waste outside the facility of the generator.
Waste Hydrocarbons: Organic carbon and hydrogen compounds that have been used and as a result of such use are contaminated with physical or chemical impurities.
Dangerous Residue: It is that residue or waste that because of its corrosive, reactive, explosive, toxic, flammable, infectious or radioactive characteristics, can cause risks, damage or unwanted effects, direct and indirect to human health and the environment. Packaging, packaging and packaging which were in contact with them shall be considered as hazardous waste.
Nuclear Residue: A hazardous waste containing radioactive chemical elements from a nuclear process, such as nuclear fission. The residue may also be generated during fuel processing for nuclear reactors or weapons or in medical applications such as radiation therapy or nuclear medicine. In addition, it is a non-reusable or recyclable substance that contains a quantity of radionuclides (radioactive elements) such that its discharge, dispersion or exposure may have direct and indirect repercussions on human health and environment.
They are typically classified for management purposes in:
Unclassifiable (or exempt) wastes: They do not possess a radioactivity that can be dangerous to the health of people or the environment in the present or future generations.
Low-activity waste: Poseen radioactivity gamma or beta at levels below 0.04 GBq/m3 if they are liquid, 0.00004 GBq/m3 if they are gaseous or the dose rate in contact is less than 20 mSv/h if they are solid. They are only considered to be of this category if their average life is less than 30 years. They must be stored in surface storage.
Average activity wastes: Poseen radioactivity gamma or beta with levels higher than low-activity residues, but less than 4 GBq/m3 for liquids, gaseous with any activity or solids whose dose rate in contact exceeds 20 mSv/h. As well as low-activity waste, only waste whose average life is less than 30 years can be considered within this category. They must be stored in surface storage.
High-activity or high-life waste: All of the alpha-radioactivity-emitting materials and those beta-or gamma-emitting materials that exceed the levels imposed by the average residue limits activity. Also all those whose average life exceeds 30 years. They must be stored in Deep Geologicals (AGPs).
Half Life: Is the average lifetime of a core before disintegrating. It is represented by the Greek letter (T) tau.
ARTICLE 4. Prohibition. The , import or traffic of hazardous waste or waste to the national territory by any natural or legal person, of a public or private nature, is prohibited. Similarly, the disposal or final reception of hazardous waste in landfills that do not comply with the appropriate physical and technical capacity or conditions for this purpose shall be prohibited.
ARTICLE 5o. ILLICIT TRAFFICKING. Who intends to introduce cargo in which the presence of hazardous waste is detected on the national territory or to illegally enter this cargo, must be returned immediately, in accordance with customs legislation and with a strict supervision by the competent environmental authorities or by the competent environmental authorities, without prejudice to the criminal penalties to be imposed. In the event of an emergency involving the transport of dangerous waste placed illegally within the national territory, which places an imminent risk to human health or the environment, the fine or penalty must be adjusted agreement with impact assessments generated.
ARTICLE 6o. REGULATION. The Ministry of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development shall regulate the content of this law and may define as hazardous waste or waste those containing other substances, elements or compounds other than the precedents, under complementary or concurrent criteria for their classification. However, it will address the proposed classification in the systems of the United Nations, the International Conventions on the subject and the specialized organizations, both national and international.
RESPONSIBILITY.
ARTICLE 7o. GENERATOR LIABILITY. The generator shall be responsible for the hazardous waste generated by the generator. The responsibility extends to its tributaries, emissions, products and by-products, dismantled and disused equipment, personal protective elements used in the handling of this type of waste and for all the health effects and the environment.
ARTICLE 8o. RESPONSIBILITY OF THE MANUFACTURER, IMPORTER AND/OR TRANSPORTER. The manufacturer, importer and/or transporter of a product or chemical with dangerous characteristics, for the purposes of this law, shall be treated as a generator, as soon as possible. responsibility for handling the packaging, transport or mobilisation, storage until discharge and reception at the final destination, residues of the product or substance and personal protective elements used in the handling of the packaging type of waste.
ARTICLE 9o. SUBSISTENCE OF LIABILITY. The integral responsibility of the generator, manufacturer, importer and/or transporter, remains until the hazardous waste is used as input or finally disposed in deposits or systems technically designed to pose no risk to human health and the environment.
ARTICLE 10. RECEIVER LIABILITY. The hazardous waste receiver shall assume the integral responsibility of the generator once it has received it from the transporter and has made or checked the use or final disposal of the carrier.
PARAGRAFO 1o. While the use or final disposal of hazardous waste by the competent environmental authority is not performed and checked, the recipient is jointly and severally with the generator.
PARAGRAFO 2o. The responsibility of this article includes monitoring, diagnosis and remediation of soil, surface water and groundwater and its interactions with human health and the environment in case of contamination by these residues.
ARTICLE 11. NON-DECLARED CHEMICAL CONTENT. The generator shall continue to be fully responsible for the health or environmental effects of an undeclared chemical or biological content to the recipient and the environmental authority.
OTHER PROVISIONS.
ARTICLE 12. OBLIGATIONS. It is the obligation of the hazardous waste generator:
1. Perform the physico-chemical and/or microbiological characterization of the same, as established in the RAS (Resolution 1060 of 2000, Title F) and other procedures in force, through special laboratories duly authorized by the competent environmental authorities or who does their work, in order to identify the degree of danger to them.
2. To inform natural or legal persons who are responsible for the storage, collection and transport, use, treatment or final disposal of them.
3. Formulate and implement Comprehensive Hazardous Waste Management Plans with their respective contingency plan, to ensure minimization, management, comprehensive management and monitoring of the waste it generates.
4. Ensure that the packaging or packaging, packaging or packaging, labelling and external management of the hazardous waste it generates, is carried out in accordance with the regulations in force.
5. To possess and update the respective material safety sheets and to provide the internal management with the necessary personal protection elements in the process.
6. Train the staff in charge of internal management in all aspects of the proper handling of these wastes and in the basic precautionary and emergency measures.
7. Register with the competent environmental authority and update their data in case of generating another type of waste from those initially reported.
8. The others that impose the Colombian environmental regulations.
ARTICLE 13. EXPORT. Only those hazardous wastes which, due to their complexity, cannot be treated in the environment and in the Colombian territory may be exported from the national territory.
For this case, the generator, transporter and recipient of hazardous waste, must comply with the provisions of the Basel Convention and other current regulations governing the matter.
ARTICLE 14. STOCKS, HAZARDOUS WASTE BURIALS AND DISUSED CONTAMINATED MACHINERY. The National Government, together with the competent environmental authority or who will do their time, will have to develop cross-sectoral, national and international to treat, dispose and dispose of stocks and burial of hazardous waste, in addition to machinery and elements that have had contact with them to protect natural resources and to promote the right to an environment healthy.
ARTICLE 15. WASTE HYDROCARBONS. The use of hydrocarbon residues, among which waste lubricating oils are found for power generation, will only be allowed if generated in the country and with the compliance of the conditions and requirements laid down by the competent authorities. The National Government will establish mechanisms to promote the use of this type of technologies and their respective regulations.
ARTICLE 16. SURVEILLANCE AND CONTROL. The competent environmental authority or who does its time, in coordination with the health, police, foreign trade and customs authorities, as the case may be, will have to fulfil its own preventive functions, inspection, surveillance and control, in accordance with the provisions of this law and other provisions of Colombian environmental legislation.
ARTICLE 17. SANTIONS. In the event of violation of the prohibitions defined in this law, the authorities shall impose administrative, criminal or disciplinary penalties to be imposed, without prejudice to the liability that is attributable to the or damage to the environment, human health, physical integrity and life of the inhabitants.
Types of sanctions. The Ministry of the Environment and Regional Autonomous Corporations will impose on the infringer the rules on environmental protection or on the management of the use of renewable natural resources by means of a reasoned resolution, according to the severity of the breach, the following types of sanctions and preventive measures:
1. Penalties:
(a) Daily fines up to a sum of 300 minimum monthly salaries, settled at the time of the respective resolution;
b) Suspension of registration or license, grant, permit or authorization;
(c) Temporary or definitive closure of the establishment, construction or service of a respective and revoking or revocation of the permit or concession;
d) Demolition of the work, at the expense of the infringer, when in advance without permission or license and having not been suspended, cause obvious damage to the environment or to renewable natural resources;
e) Definitive disregard of products or products used to commit the infringement.
2. Preventive measures:
a) Verbal or written assembly;
b) Neglect of individuals or specimens of fauna or flora of products and implements used to commit the infringement;
(c) Suspension of work or activity, where damage or danger to renewable natural resources or human health may be derived from its continuation or where the work or activity has been initiated without the respect of the permit, grant, licence or authorization;
(d) Realization, within a period of time, of the studies and evaluations required to establish the nature and characteristics of the damage, effects and impacts caused by the infringement, as well as the measures necessary to mitigate them or compensate them.
PARAGRAFO 1o. The payment of the fines does not exempt the offender from the execution of the works or measures that have been ordered by the entity responsible for the control or the obligation to restore the environment and the renewable natural resources affected.
PARAGRAFO 2o. The penalties provided for in this Article shall apply without prejudice to the exercise of the civil and criminal actions to which there is a place.
PARAGRAFO 3o. For the imposition of the measures and penalties referred to in this article, the procedure provided for by Decree 1594 of 1984 or the Statute that modifies or replaces it shall be the case.
PARAGRAFO 4o. In the case of the San Andres, Providencia, and Santa Catalina Archipelago department, the penalties provided for in Articles 28, 29 , and 35 of Act 47 of 1993, shall apply, without prejudice to those provided for in this Article.
ARTICLE 18. VALIDITY AND REPEAL. This law governs from the date of its enactment and repeals any provisions that are contrary to it.
The President of the honorable Senate of the Republic,
HERNAN FRANCISCO ANDRADE SERRANO.
The Secretary General of the honorable Senate of the Republic,
EMILIO OTERO DAJUD.
The President of the honorable House of Representatives,
GERMAN MALE COTRINO.
The Secretary General of the honorable House of Representatives,
JESUS ALFONSO RODRIGUEZ CAMARGO.
COLOMBIA-NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
Publish and comply.
Dada in Bogotá, D. C., on November 27, 2008.
ALVARO URIBE VELEZ
The Minister of Environment, Housing and Territorial Development,
JUAN LOZANO RAMIREZ.
