Friday
August 14, 1992
Part IV
Environmental
Protection Agency
40 CFR Part 261
Deferral of Petroleum UST-Contaminated
Media and Debris From RCRA Hazardous
Waste Requirements: Notice of Data
Availability; Proposed Rule
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36866
Federal Register / Vol. 57, No. 158 / Friday, August 14, 1992 / Proposed Rules
ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION
AGENCY
40 CFR Part 261
[FRL-4194-2]
Deferral of Petroleum UST-
Contaminated Media and Debris From
RCRA Hazardous Waste
Requirements: Notice of Data
Availability
AGENCY: Environmental Protection
Agency.
ACTION: Notice of data availability.
SUMMARY: The Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) is today publishing a
notice describing several studies which
the Agency has completed concerning
the temporary deferral from the
hazardous waste Toxicity
Characteristics (TC) rule of petroleum-
contaminated media and debris from
underground storage tanks (USTs).
Since the temporary deferral was
published on March 29,1990, EPA has
conducted several studies and held
meetings with interested members of the
public regarding the temporary deferral
and the anticipated effects of regulating
UST petroleum-contaminated media and
debris as hazardous wastes under
Subtitle C of the Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act (RCRA). This notice
summarizes the findings of the studies
and the results of the public meetings.
These materials will be used by the
Agency to make a final determination
regarding the hazardous waste
regulatory status of petroleum UST-
contaminated media and debris. EPA
encourages public review and comment
on these materials.
DATES: Written comments on these
materials must be submitted on or
before September 28,1992.
ADDRESSES: Written comments on the
materials described in today's notice
should be addressed to the docket clerk
at the following address: U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency,
RCRA Docket (OS-305), 401 M Street,
S.W., Washington, DC 20460. One
original and two copies of comments
should be sent and identified by
regulatory docket reference number F-
92-DPUA-FFFFF. The docket is open
from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through
Friday, excluding Federal holidays.
Docket materials may be reviewed by
appointment by calling (202) 260-9327.
Copies of docket materials may be made
at a cost of $0.15 per page.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
For general information about this
notice, please contact the RCRA/
Superfund Hotline, Office of Solid
Waste, U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, Washington, DC 20460, ,(600)
424-9346 (toll-free) or (202) 260-3000
(local). For the hearing impaired, the
number is (800) 553-7672 (toll-free), or
(202) 260-9652 (local). For specific
information about the studies and
meetings described in this notice or
about the UST deferral, please contact
John Heffelfinger in the EPA Office of
Underground Storage Tanks at (703)
308-8881.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
I. Background
A. Toxicity Characteristics Rule
The Toxicity Characteristics (TC) rule
for identifying hazardous wastes was
promulgated by the Agency on March
29,1990 (55 Fed. Reg. 11798) and became
effective on September 25,1990. The rule
replaced the Extraction Procedure (EP)
leach test with the Toxicity
Characteristic Leaching Procedure
(TCLP), added 25 organic chemicals to
the list of toxic constituents of concern,
and established regulatory levels for
these organic chemicals.
The overall effect of the TC rate was
to subject additional solid wastes to
regulatory control under the hazardous
waste provisions of Subtitle C of RCRA.
Under this rule, a waste may be a
hazardous waste if any chemicals listed
in the rule, such as benzene, are present
in leachate from the waste (generated
from use of the TCLP) at or above the
specified regulatory levels. Management
of such hazardous waste is subject to
stringent RCRA Subtitle C controls.
B. The UST Deferral
Among the wastes that could be TC
wastes are petroleum-contaminated
media and debris. At the time of
promulgation of the final TC rule, the
Agency made a determination to
temporarily defer applicability of the TC
rule to media and debris (e.g. soils and
groundwater) contaminated with
petroleum from underground storage
tanks (USTs) that are subject to the
corrective action requirements of
Subtitle I of RCRA. 55 FR11836 (March
29,1990). The deferral was limited to the
25 newly listed organic chemicals under
the TC (i.e. Hazardous Waste Codes
D018 through D043 only). See 40 CFR
261.4(b)(10).
The deferral was the result of several
factors. Because the potential impact of.
the TC on materials generated from UST
cleanups did not become apparent until
very late in the rulemaking process, at
the time of promulgation of the final TC
rule, the Agency had little information
regarding the full impact of the TC rule
on UST cleanups, particularly regarding
the amount of contaminated media that
would become hazardous waste and the
type of management feasible and
appropriate for such waste. However,
available information suggested that the
impact of applying Subtitle C to UST
cleanups might be severe in terms of the
administrative feasibility of both the
Subtitle C and Subtitle I programs. A
preliminary assessment indicated that
the number of UST cleanup sites and the
amount of media and debris at each site
that would exhibit the toxicity
characteristic could be extremely high.
with EPA expecting hundreds of
thousands of UST releases to be
identified in the next few years. The
Agency believed that subjecting all, or
even a significant portion, of these sites
to Subtitle C requirements could
overwhelm the hazardous waste
permitting program and the capacity of
existing hazardous waste treatment,
storage, and disposal facilities.
In addition, EPA believed that.
imposition of the requirements could
delay UST cleanups significantly,
require an enormous new commitment
of Federal and State resources, and
undermine the State and local focus of
the UST program. All of these factors
suggested that EPA needed additional
time to determine with more certainty
what the impacts of the TC would be on
UST cleanups before subjecting such
materials to hazardous waste
requirements. In addition, EPA needed
time to investigate whether regulatory
changes could be made to the RCRA
Subtitle C regulations to allow
appropriate integration of the two
programs. EPA also believed that the
UST regulations governing cleanups at
these sites would be adequate to protect
human health and the environment in
the interim, until a final determination
was made regarding the regulation of
UST wastes.
In the preamble explaining the need
for the deferral, EPA committed to
undertaking several studies and
meetings in order to make a final
determination concerning the regulation
of these UST wastes under the Subtitle
C program. The studies and meetings
described below are those that EPA
agreed to undertake in the 1990 TC rule.
The information that EPA is making
available to the public today for review
and comment will provide key inputs
into EPA's final determination regarding
the permanent regulatory status of UST
petroleum-contaminated media and
debris as hazardous waste under RCRA
Subtitle C.
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Federal Register / Vol. 57, No. 158 / Friday, August 14, 1992 / Proposed Rules 36867
II. EPA's Studies
As explained above, the application of
the TC rule to UST cleanups was
temporarily deferred to allow cleanups
under the UST program to proceed while
the Agency evaluated the extent and
nature of the potential impacts of
Subtitle C requirements if applied to the
UST program and the feasibility of
regulatory alternatives for program
integration. In fulfillment of the
commitment the Agency made in the
preamble to the final TC rule, EPA has
completed studies that will be used as
key inputs to the final determination
' regarding the regulation of petroleum
UST-coniaminated media and debris as
hazardous waste. These studies are
available for review in the docket for
this notice and are briefly described
below.
A. Technical Study
The Agency is making available today
for public comment a draft report
entitled "TC Study of Petroleum
Contaminated Media." This report is
organized as follows:
• Estimates of the amounts of UST
petroleum-contaminated soils that might
be expected to exhibit the hazardous
waste characteristic of toxicity if subject
to the TCLP test;
• Impacts on hazardous waste
capacity nationwide if these materials
required management as hazardous
waste;
• State management practices for
petroleum-contaminated soils from
USTs;
• Overview of technologies currently
used for management of petroleum-
contaminated soils and groundwater;
and
• Impacts on the RCRA Subtitle I and
C programs of removing the temporary
deferral.
B. Impacts Study
The Agency is also making available
today for public comment a draft report
entitled "The Impacts of Removing the
TCLP Deferral for Petroleum-
Contaminated Media at Underground
Storage Tanks Sites." This report is
organized as follows:
• Procedural impacts of removing the
deferral with regard to changes that
would be required in cleanup
procedures, technologies and the pace of
UST corrective actions;
• Cost impacts of removing the
deferral, to the regulated community as
well as to EPA and the States; and
• Preliminary assessment of health
risk impacts associated with removing
the temporary deferral.
C. Study Findings
The findings of these two reports
corroborate the preliminary assessment
that EPA made at the time of
promulgation of the temporary deferral.
Specifically, the findings of the two
studies indicate that removing the TC
deferral would significantly affect UST
cleanup procedures, delay remedial
actions, and increase soil remediation
costs. Further, delays in site remediation
caused by compliance with Subtitle C
requirements could increase health and
environmental risks prior to cleanup.
In addition to findings concerning the
impacts of removing the deferral, these
studies also indicate that many States
have programs in place to regulate the
management of UST petroleum-
contaminated media and debris. The
vast majority of these State programs
address in some manner the entire cycle
of UST petroleum-contaminated soils
and groundwater management, from
initial characterization through storage
and ultimate treatment or disposal.
EPA is interested in any comments
that the public may have on the content
of these studies and in the use of these
studies to support a final determination
concerning the regulation of UST
petroleum-contaminated media and
debris as hazardous waste.
III. Public Meetings
In the preamble to the 1990 TC rule,
EPA also stated its intention to convene
a public forum to discuss the issues
associated with regulating UST
petroleum-contaminated soils and
debris under Subtitle C of RCRA. To
fulfill this commitment, in September
and December, 1991, EPA convened
several meetings with various interested
parties (including representatives from
the States, Congressional staff,
environmental groups and the waste
treatment and waste generating
industries) to discuss issues related to
the cleanup of petroleum contamination
from UST at well as non-UST sources,
and the potential impacts of the TC rule
on these cleanups.
The thirteen States attending these
meetings expressed significant concern
about the adverse environmental
impacts resulting from the application of
the TC rule to petroleum UST releases.
- In the view of many States, the delays
associated with RCRA Subtitle C
management would allow for
volatilization and migration of certain
TC constituents, such as benzene prior
to cleanup. Croups representing the
waste generating industries generally
agreed with the States, although several
'stated that this problem was not unique
to petroleum-contaminated media.
Representatives of environmental
groups and certain members of the
hazardous waste treatment industry
expressed concerns with the deferral as
a mechanism for solving the
implementation problems posed by
Subtitle C regulation of petroleum-
contaminated media and debris. They
suggested that EPA consider modifying
the hazardous waste requirements to
accommodate these cleanup wastes
rather than exempting the wastes
entirely from important procedural and
substantive hazardous waste
requirements.
A complete summary of these
meetings is in the docket for this action.
The various viewpoints expressed in
these meetings will be considered as
part of EPA's final decisionmaking
concerning the deferral.
IV. Schedule for Final Determination
EPA will review and evaluate the
public comments on the studies and
meetings described in this notice as part
of its decisionmaking concerning the
regulatory status of UST petroleum-
contaminated media and debris. The
Agency also expects to publish later this
year another notice addressing the
regulatory status of UST petroleum-
contaminated media and debris. That
notice will include EPA's evaluation of
whether and how the Subtitle C
regulations can be amended to
accommodate the UST wastes and
avoid the administrative and
environmental problems associated with
regulation of UST wastes as hazardous
that are noted above and were
discussed in the preamble to the 1990
TC final rule.
Following review of all the public
comments submitted on these notices,
EPA plans to publish a final
determination that will terminate the
temporary deferral (codified at 40 CFR
261.4(b}(10)), permanently exempt UST
petroleum-contaminated media and
debris from the TC, or take some other
regulatory action concerning the
applicability of hazardous waste
requirements to these cleanup wastes.
EPA currently expects to publish this
determinationJh the Federal Register by
March 31,1993.
Dated: July 23,1992.
Don R. Clay,
Assistant Administrator.
[FR Doc. 92-19184 Filed 8-13-«2; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 65SO-SO-M
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