United States Solid Waste and
Environmental Protection Emergency Response EPA/530- F-93-003
Agency (OS-305) June 1993
Office of Solid Waste
Environmental
Fact Sheet
Update to Third Edition of
RCRA Test Methods Document
SW-846 Proposed
Background
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) creates a
comprehensive program for the safe management of solid waste.
Among the elements of this program are criteria for identifying and
listing hazardous wastes, along with standards for storing, treating and
disposing of those wastes.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) first published the
guidance document SW-846, Test Methods for Evaluating Solid Waste,
Physical/Chemical Methods, to support RCRA's associated testing
requirements. The document's methods are intended to promote
accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, precision, and comparability of
analyses and test results. Several of the hazardous waste regulations
under Subtitle C of RCRA require that specific testing methods
described in SW-846 be employed for certain applications. In other
situations, this publication functions as a guidance document, setting
forth acceptable, although not required, methods for use, as
appropriate.
EPA continually reviews advances in analytical instrumentation and
techniques, periodically incorporating them into SW-846 to support
changes in the regulatory program and to improve method
performance. Since the document's inception in 1980, EPA has
published three Editions of the Test Methods manual. Concurrently
with this action, EPA is incorporating the Third Edition of the manual,
along with it's first update, into the RCRA regulations. In situations
where the regulations require the use of appropriate SW-846 methods,
the regulations now specify use of the Third Edition of EPA's SW-846
manual as amended by Update I.
-------
United States Solid Waste and
Environmental Protection Emergency Response EPA/530- F-93-003
Agency (OS-305) June 1993
Office of Solid Waste
v°/EPA Environmental
Fact Sheet
Update to Third Edition of
RCRA Test Methods Document
SW-846 Proposed
Background
The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) creates a
comprehensive program for the safe management of solid waste.
Among the elements of this program are criteria for identifying and
listing hazardous wastes, along with standards for storing, treating and
disposing of those wastes.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) first published the
guidance document SW-846, Test Methods for Evaluating Solid Waste,
Physical/Chemical Methods, to support RCRA's associated testing
requirements. The document's methods are intended to promote
accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, precision, and comparability of
analyses and test results. Several of the hazardous waste regulations
under Subtitle C of RCRA require that specific testing methods
described in SW-846 be employed for certain applications. In other
situations, this publication functions as a guidance document, setting
forth acceptable, although not required, methods for use, as
appropriate.
EPA continually reviews advances in analytical instrumentation and
techniques, periodically incorporating them into SW-846 to support
changes in the regulatory program and to improve method
performance. Since the document's inception in 1980, EPA has
published three Editions of the Test Methods manual. Concurrently
with this action, EPA is incorporating the Third Edition of the manual,
along with it's first update, into the RCRA regulations. In situations
where the regulations require the use of appropriate SW-846 methods,
the regulations now specify use of the Third Edition of EPA's SW-846
manual as amended by Update I.
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