Communications, Education,
l Protection **** At<«iri
Ag«ncy
>EPA Environmental News
FOR RELEASE: TUESDAY, MAY 18, 1993
EPA ADMINISTRATOR BROWNER ANNOUNCES NEW HAZARDOUS
WASTE REDUCTION AND COMBUSTION STRATEGY
Robin Woods 202-260-4377
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Carol M.
Browner today announced new steps to protect public health and
the environment by reducing the amount of hazardous waste
produced .in this country and strengthening federal controls
governing hazardous waste incinerators and industrial furnaces.
"Beginning today," said Browner, "we are changing our
approach to hazardous waste management in this country, to ensure
maximum protection to the public. I am directing EPA's regional
offices to immediately give their highest priority over the next
18 months to bringing existing facilities, under rigorous permit
controls. This will have the general effect of a temporary
capacity freeze as we reexamine our national waste strategy."
Administrator Browner said she is also taking a series of
immediate additional actions to permanently enhance the hazardous
waste prevention and combustion programs:
— conducting a major overhaul of federal rules
governing waste combustion;
— starting today, requiring full risk assessments,
including those for indirect exposure, in^all new permits to
ensure that they are based on the best scientific evidence?
— immediately requiring new permits to include an
appropriate dioxin emission standard;
— immediately requiring new permits to include an
appropriate, more stringent control for metals;
.— calling for hazardous waste producers to commit to
waste reduction programs;
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— calling for a national review of the relative roles
of waste combustion and waste reduction in hazardous waste
management; and,
— calling for greater public involvement opportunities.
"I believe today's actions are a significant step toward
enhancing -the safety of disposal operations for industrial
wastes, but even more importantly, they move us closer to my goal
of reducing hazardous waste," said Browner. "The Clinton
Administration is committed to using every tool available under
the law to make changes that will result in the safety of
hazardous .:aste disposal.
"My highest priority is the prevention of pollution at its
source, before it is ever created," said Browner. "Hazardous
waste reduction represents the future of waste control in this
country as well as the future in safeguarding the health of our
citizens.
Hazardous waste producers must commit to waste reduction
programs using guidelines issued today. These guidelines specify
necessary elements for these programs and are the first-ever
hazardous waste reduction guidelines EPA has ever published.
Under the federal hazardous waste law, the Resource Conservation
and Recovery Act (RCRA), hazardous waste producers have been
required since 1984 to have waste reduction programs in place,
but no specific guidance has been issued to define those programs
until today.
Nearly five million tons of hazardous wastes, equal to the
amount which could be carried in enough 6,000 gallon tank trucks
to cover 2400 miles, end-to-end, from Washington, D.C. to Los
Angeles, are burned each year in 184 incinerators and 171
industrial furnaces, including 34 cement kilns. About half of
the five million tons are burned each year at 15 large commercial
incinerators and the 34 cement kilns, which also take commercial
wastes. The remaining incinerators and industrial furnaces are
"on-site" facilities, permitted for non-commercial use only.
"It has been 12 years since the federal rules governing the
safety of hazardous waste incinerators have been reviewed or
strengthened," said Browner. "Today we are taking significant
interim steps to vastly improve permits, as well as conducting a
complete review of the incinerator standards and the more recent
industrial furnace rules to reflect changes in advanced pollution
control technologies."
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Until new rules are published, EPA will continue to use its
general "omnibus11 permitting authority to require new controls
and risk assessments in each new permit when necessary to protect
the public or the environment.
Browner emphasized the important role of the public in the
permitting process: "I will provide for increased public
participation opportunities in the permitting process, such as
during test burns, to help local citizens assure themselves that
facilities in their neighborhoods are operated safely."
Browner also will convene a task force of EPA and state
officials to undertake a broad evaluation of the role of
hazardous waste combustion in the nation's management of
hazardous waste, specifically to include waste reduction.
Currently, federal rules do not routinely require full risk
assessments or the new emission controls. For dioxin, federal
rules now generally only require that hazardous waste be burned
to a percentage destruction of dioxin. The use of risk assess-
ments, including those on indirect exposure, along with the
addition of an appropriate emission limit for dioxin in new
permits, will provide a greater measure of certainty that dioxin
does not present an unacceptable risk.
Browner also today tightened the controls for particulate
matter (pm) in new permits, used to control metals emissions.
The new, more stringent, standard is based on the availability of
advanced technology.
Over the next 18 months, as a result of Browner's new
directive, EPA's regional offices will work with the states to
begin bringing incinerators and industrial furnaces under full
permit controls. This will include all pf the 171.industrial
furnaces, including over 30 cement kilns.
Browner's directive to fully permit existing capacity prior
to considering additional capacity is based on EPA data indica-
ting that, at this time, there is approximately 2.7 million tons
of commercial combustion capacity available. Of this, approxi-
mately 55 percent of the liquids combustion capacity is being
utilized while nearly 9O percent of the solids combustion
capacity is being utilized.
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