United States           Solid Waste and
                    Environmental Protection     Emergency Response          EPA/530-F-92-020
                    Agency               (OS-305)                 August 1992

                    Office of Solid Waste
v>EPA         Environmental
                    Fact  Sheet
                   PROPOSED "NO MIGRATION
                   VARIANCES TO THE LAND
                   DISPOSAL RESTRICTIONS
                   OF HAZARDOUS WASTES
         Background

           The 1984 amendments to the Resource Conservation and Recovery
         Act (RCRA) established a phased prohibition against the continued
         land disposal of untreated hazardous waste - the Land Disposal
         Restrictions Program. This prohibition became effective for different
         categories of wastes from November 1986 to May 1990.

           RCRA authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to
         grant a variance from the land disposal restrictions to allow land
         disposal of untreated hazardous waste in certain circumstances.  In
         order for EPA to grant a "no migration" variance, an owner or operator
         of a facility must successfully demonstrate that the hazardous
         constituents of an untreated hazardous waste will not migrate from the
         disposal unit or injection zone for as long as the waste remains
         hazardous.

           To date, EPA has promulgated procedural  requirements for
         petitioning EPA for a variance, and for complying with a variance once
         granted.  EPA has also promulgated criteria for granting no migration
         variances to underground injection wells.

         Action

           EPA is now proposing a comprehensive, substantive, and procedural
         framework for no migration petitions. This rule will apply to all types
         of land disposal units (other than underground injection wells),
         including landfills, surface impoundments, waste piles, land treatment
         units, salt dome formations, salt bed formations, underground  mines,
         caves, vaults, and bunkers.

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                    United States            Solid Waste and
                    Environmental Protection     Emergency Response          EPA/530-F-92-020
                    Agency               (OS-305)                 August 1992

                    Office of Solid Waste
x°/EPA         Environmental
                    Fact  Sheet
                   PROPOSED "NO MIGRATION
                   VARIANCES TO THE LAND
                   DISPOSAL RESTRICTIONS
                   OF HAZARDOUS WASTES
         Background

           The 1984 amendments to the Resource Conservation and Recovery
         Act (RCRA) established a phased prohibition against the continued
         land disposal of untreated hazardous waste - the Land Disposal
         Restrictions Program. This prohibition became effective for different
         categories of wastes from November 1986 to May 1990.

           RCRA authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to
         grant a variance from the land disposal restrictions to allow land
         disposal of untreated hazardous waste in certain circumstances. In
         order for EPA to grant a "no migration" variance, an owner or operator
         of a facility must successfully demonstrate that the hazardous
         constituents of an untreated hazardous waste will not migrate from the
         disposal unit or injection zone for as long as the waste remains
         hazardous.

           To date, EPA has promulgated procedural requirements for
         petitioning EPA for a variance, and for complying with a variance once
         granted.  EPA has also promulgated criteria for granting no migration
         variances to underground injection wells.

         Action

           EPA is now proposing a comprehensive, substantive, and procedural
         framework for no migration petitions. This rule will apply to all types
         of land disposal units (other than underground injection wells),
         including landfills, surface impoundments, waste piles, land treatment
         units, salt dome formations, salt bed formations, underground mines,
         caves, vaults, and bunkers.

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